


The Divide

by Jdragonart (Team_Alpha_Wolf_Squadron), Team_Alpha_Wolf_Squadron



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-18 11:47:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 32,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29489259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Team_Alpha_Wolf_Squadron/pseuds/Jdragonart, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Team_Alpha_Wolf_Squadron/pseuds/Team_Alpha_Wolf_Squadron
Summary: Long ago, before the 100 year war, a group of non benders decided to break away from the Four Nations and create their own land. Over time, it came to be what we understand life to be like today. TV's, cars, university, and no benders to be found. The government wants to keep it that way too.When Sokka learns that his sister will be deported as soon as she reaches her eighteenth birthday, he sets out to help his dad make a home for her away from the life he'd always thought he'd live, and do it at the North Pole. The real North Pole, where waterbenders like Katara would be safe from the war his people didn't even know was happening.On Hiatus
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 13





	1. Chapter 1

“They’re talking about me,” Katara said before Sokka’s door was even halfway open.

He hummed, hearing her close the door behind her. They were always talking about Katara. It was just how things went in this family. Ever since she’d been born it had been Katara this and Katara that. He tried not to be resentful about it but, well, he thought at least someone would have met him from the train station this morning. Even if it had been Gran Gran. Just someone there to say ‘Welcome home Sokka’ ‘How was Uni Sokka? Did you make a lot of friends?’. Not standing there for nearly half an hour before finally giving up and phoning home only to be told everyone was at Katara’s school. 

The bed dipped, Sokka yanking his feet up before they were sat on. “Are you even listening to me?” Katara snapped.

He sighed, knowing she wasn’t leaving until she’d said her peace. Dropping his phone, he sat up against his headboard, giving Katara the much needed attention she always deserved. “What?”

“I said they’re talking about me,” she repeated.

“So?” 

“So it doesn’t sound good.” Which was new, he gave her that. Like he said, Katara was always being talked about in this house. But usually it was for good things. For being a star swimmer. For being an excellent student who hadn’t needed to pull an all nighter just to make sure she remembered something they’d learned in primary school. For being the favourite child mom and dad happily lavished praise upon praise onto until Sokka was nothing more than a distant thought at a train station. Sue him, he was still pissed about that. It had been raining too, and his suitcase now had a hole in it.

“Well what are they saying?” 

Her face twisted. “I don’t know.” 

“You don’t know,” Sokka huffed. “Then why are you assuming it’s bad?”

“Because,” she snapped. Then, quieter, “Gran Gran’s here.”

Again, nothing out of the ordinary. Gran Gran was around nearly every day. Especially when they’d been younger and their parents had needed someone to make sure Katara and Sokka got home after school. Some of his fondest memories were of sitting in their living room as Gran Gran made him hold a ball of wool. Boring, maybe, but watching the ball unravel as she bitched about her other old lady friends was something his brain had latched on to be nice over the years. So, again, “That doesn’t mean it’s something bad.”

Then Katara said something that Sokka hadn’t been expecting. That being, “I mean other Gran Gran.”

Other Gran Gran. 

The Gran Gran Sokka saw every day in his youth had been his mom’s mom. The lady who smelled like lemons and always told Sokka he looked a mess whenever she saw him. A sweet lady, apart from the verbal criticism. But other Gran Gran. Sokka had only met her twice. Kanna. She lived a long way away dad said. In a place where it snowed a lot, and there were no cars or electronics for miles. She’d sent dad away when he’d been a child to a boarding school where he’d met mom. Mom always frowned whenever Kanna was mentioned because of that. Where her own mom would send loving notes and presents every now and then, Kanna sent nothing. 

The first time Sokka had met her was when Katara was born, which meant he didn’t remember a thing about her. The second time they’d met he’d been older. About eleven, he thought, and it had been when his mom had been hit by that stupid drunk driver. She’d flown all the way across the world to see dad and the visit itself had been… weird. A lot of awkward silences. A lot of sitting there as Gran Gran looked him and Katara over, Sokka was never able to tell if she liked him or not. 

Apart from that, no birthday cards, no christmas cards, no general letters asking after him, or even a congratulations on making it into University. No, it was only when Katara had done something at school that the elusive Gran Gran decided to show her face again. 

Typical.

Still, he couldn’t help feel slightly better that if it was a bad thing, that it wasn’t him, this time, that was the subject of all this whispering. 

“She was at the school too,” Katara muttered. “It was so awkward driving back with her. Mom wouldn’t even look at her.”

“Did she say anything to you?” 

Katara shrugged. “She said ‘hi’. Asked about swimming.” she shrugged again. “Mom didn’t really… let her talk.”

Oof. Looked like something had happened then. “It’s probably not you,” Sokka said. “If mom’s not talking to her she probably said something before they picked you up.” Mom was like the nicest person ever too. If she had a bad opinion about someone they had to have warranted it.

“Probably,” Katara agreed. “But that doesn’t explain why I heard my name.”

No. He guessed it didn’t. But, “I mean, they always mention our names. Doesn’t mean anything usually Katara. I mean, maybe mom was just saying something like, ‘when we picked Katara up you blah blah blah’ or something.” 

“Maybe.” She didn’t look convinced.

Nor was Sokka, really. But the shock of Gran Gran being here had wiped away whatever bad mood he had about not being picked up. It also explained why he hadn’t been picked up if they had Gran Gran to entertain. That didn’t mean other Gran Gran couldn’t have come or, Sokka didn’t know, make a courtesy call and told him to grab a taxi over to hers so he wasn’t outside, in the rain, after the taxi had dropped him off at home waiting for someone to come back and let him in.

He was getting riled up again, which wasn’t helpful right now. What was helpful, was getting Katara to stop worrying about this. He may be annoyed by her, but she was his little sister. It sort of came with the title that they both hated each other's guts and wanted the other to be okay. So he tried to get her mind off whatever was happening downstairs and asked about school. About that guy she’d been hanging out with the last time they’d spoken on the phone. Anything really until she was happy enough to call it a night and slunk off back to her room.

He’d honestly forgotten Gran Gran’s existence come that next morning. Really, he’d forgotten he was home, his sleep lagged brain wondering why the wallpaper was different before he finally remembered he’d caught a train as he made it onto the landing. He still wasn’t completely awake as he stumbled downstairs, which was why, later, when dad was laughing his ass off about Sokka’s scream of terror, he didn’t recognise the weird old woman in their kitchen.

“You’re such a drama queen,” Katara laughed, once mom and dad both had calmed him down. Sitting around the kitchen, he was resolutely not looking Gran Gran’s way. God knows what she thought of him now. 

“I am not a drama queen,” Sokka huffed back. “And you know what dad,” he shot back, still hearing his dad chortle from the living room, “you should be pleased I can scream that loud. If there really was an intruder in this house at least my death would have alerted you to them being here.”

“That was a scream?” dad gasped, handing a few letters to mom, “I thought it was a siren. I told your mom to shut it off before she realised it was you.”

“Stop it,” mom warned, playfully shoving dad away. “And you’re right sweetie. Your scream would be very helpful if we did have a break in.”

That didn’t mean they stopped laughing at him. At least until Gran Gran piped up, “It’s always helpful to have a good set of lungs where I live.” Then it was like a bucket of water had been splashed on everyone. Mom even left the table, Gran Gran sitting there with the look of someone who honestly didn’t know what they’d said wrong.

He kind of got that. It was probably why, later, once he’d showered and wouldn’t offend his Gran Gran with train smell, he ignored the whispered arguing coming from his parents room and sat next to Gran Gran.

Or, in the other chair in the same room as Gran Gran. He didn’t think they were quite to sitting together familiar yet. He fiddled with his phone for a moment, wondering if he should just give up and pretend he’d come down here to look at his phone. Then Gran Gran said, “They’re not too happy I’m here I think.”

“No,” since, well, it wasn’t like he could try and deny it. He could literally hear the muffled yelling from down here. “I don’t think so. But, I mean, I’m… happy to see you?” sort of. He was always curious about his dad’s side of the family. Dad literally never spoke about his home. All Sokka knew was what they’d told him when he’d asked where Gran Gran lived. That it was cold, very far away and Sokka would hate it because there was no internet connection. 

“You’re very sweet,” she smiled at him. “Very much like your father too. You were the spit of him last time I saw you.” Which was what, eight years ago? Still, his dad was a very handsome man, so Sokka wasn’t too upset with the comparison. 

A few more muffled yells and a creak on the floorboards meaning Katara was listening outside their door later Sokka grew the courage to ask, “What are you doing here? Not that you need a reason or anything.” Right? Unless mom really hated her that much she actually needed an excuse to see her family. 

Gran Gran sighed, folding back a little further into her chair. “I think your parents best be the ones to tell you that. They were the ones who invited me after all.” Which was news to him. He hadn’t been told she was coming over. But then, he’d also been at Uni for the past few months so, maybe it was something just Katara knew. She did forget to tell him a lot of stuff as well. Including the fact it was mom’s birthday until the day of in which fact he had to scramble around for a present and pretend it got lost in the post until it came a week late.

“Okay.” He shuffled a little further in his chair, “Then, can you tell me about your home then? Dad says it’s cold.”

She nodded. “It is cold.” and then got up, leaving Sokka wondering if he’d done something wrong. Except he hadn’t since she came back a moment later with her bag. A huge blue coat was pulled out, Kanna handing it over to Sokka. The outside was thick, a little coarse, but the inside was warm and soft and Sokka realised at the wrong minute that it was actual fur. Like, real fur. Like the kind of stuff he’d be slaughtered for at Uni if he even mentioned he owned something an animal had died for.

But, it turned out, that wasn’t the way where Gran Gran was from. No grocers, no large supermarkets. Gran Gran said she had to get three boats and a plane before she came close to where Sokka lived. Dad was right about no electronics, but Gran Gran wasn’t completely stupid. She knew her way around a few things after having visited over the years. But she told him outright that back where she came from things weren’t as simple as he had it here. Food was scarce. Water had to be melted for hours over a fire. Hunting was something that happened, and happened because it was actually necessary. Like life or death necessary. It sounded very… old fashioned, and dad was right, he definitely would have hated it. 

Gran Gran didn’t seem to be doing so bad with it however. She’d made it this long in life after all. 

She also wasn’t as mean as he would have thought she’d be. He thought, with the way mom went on, the way he remembered everything being so quiet around her, that she would be. That she’d be disapproving about everything the way mom’s mom sometimes was. But, she wasn’t. She actually said mom kept a nice home. That it was different to what she was used to, but not a bad different. She liked that Sokka had grown up happy, too, even if mom and dad were still pretending divorce wasn’t what was happening between them. 

“It’s like they think we’re five,” Sokka lamented. “Like, I know when I’m not here dad sleeps in my room.” He’d found dad’s shaving kit shoved into one of his drawers. “And Katara’s seventeen. Like, we’re not kids. And I know some people just fall out of love and stuff, so, I don’t get it.” He didn’t get why they wouldn’t just divorce and be done with it. He thought they were waiting for Katara to leave for Uni as well but, well, then what? If anything they should have done it before Sokka went to Uni. It was easier figuring out where the extra bedrooms needed to be before things like living away from home happened. “Wait, is that why you’re here?” Was dad like, actually being vindictive about this? Sokka had never thought he would be. They never fought like they hated each other, just like they wanted to move on with their lives. They were still friends. They could still share a room together, hence last night. But maybe more was going on.

Gran Gran didn’t deny it either. “Like I said,” she told him, “It’s something your parents should tell you about.” and then changed the subject to something called ice dodging.

He, dare he say it, had something like a reportee, going on with Gran Gran come supper time. She didn’t call him a mess either, which he counted as a point in her favour. In fact, after cajoling him to sit in front of her, she showed him how men wore their hair back at her home. It was pretty cool. She was pretty cool, which is why he still didn’t understand why mom was giving her the stink eye.

Sokka elected to take Gran Gran out that next day. Mainly because Katara was starting to take mom’s side in all this and told Sokka point blank last night that she hoped Gran Gran wasn’t staying long. Which was completely unfair to Gran Gran. Katara hadn’t even spoken to her. Plus, Gran Gran came because of mom and dad. So, yeah, if they weren’t playing host he would because it’s not every day an old lady sails across the world to see her family.

Mainly he took her to the town. Firstly because he needed new underwear. Secondly because he figured she probably didn’t get a chance to see a lot of fashion bundled up in a coat twenty four seven. She certainly appreciated some of the trends anyway, even if the winter coats she found she scoffed at straight away for being ‘flimsy’. 

While fashion was something they didn’t quite see eye to eye in, considering Sokka’s hands still felt dirty after touching that coat, food was something else entirely. Gran Gran lit up at the mention of an all you can eat buffet. Sokka saw why too when he realised his appetite may be hereditary. Gran Gran tried everything, and even took a doggy bag for later when Sokka declared they had to leave now or else the next plate would definitely mean they would need a taxi home. 

“I think I might take my car next time,” he said on the way back. Gran Gran was switching radio stations next to him, the music low since she was curious, as she’d told him on the way over, but she still wanted to hear what he had to say. “The train’s great and all. It certainly means I can nap all the way there. But I hate waiting around.” Especially if no one was coming for him.

“We use Polar bear dogs to travel where I live,” Gran Gran said, and wow, what a thing to lay on him. So many questions. 

Was that a type of dog? Was it a polar bear itself? Did they attach a sled? Were there reindeers there? Was Santa real if there were reindeers there? 

He settled on “Cool,” when he couldn’t decide on one question, figuring he’d come back to it maybe tomorrow or something.

Or, he would have. Except as soon as they pulled onto Sokka’s street he spied a police car outside his door. “Oh no,” he heard Gran Gran say.

Sokka felt his hands gripping the steering wheel and little else. The flash of blue circling again and again in his brain. Mom had an accident, they’d said. Were they going to say the same thing again? Dad’s car was still there, but mom liked to go on walks. She hadn’t been driving the day she almost died. 

Gran Gran patted his arm, Sokka snapping back to the sunlit street where no siren was turning on the police car. They were talking to dad however, Sokka pulling into the first free space just as they turned towards their own car. Gran Gran stopped him from getting out, her grip firm despite her age. The two of them watched the car pull out, drive off and turn the corner. 

As soon as it did she was out, Sokka barely able to keep up with her as she caught the door before dad closed it. Mom and Katara were in the living room, Katara crying, but Sokka didn’t care. Mom was there. Mom was alright. Dad was alright and Katara was crying but that was okay because they were all there and safe and alive and not in the hospital after some idiot decided to run them over.

“Hakoda,” he heard Gran Gran call. Then the room was in motion, Sokka being shoved into the living room and dad telling him to keep an eye on his sister. The rest of them went upstairs. Gran Gran too.

They closed every door on their way up, like that would stop the yelling if it started up from being heard. Yet no yelling started. Just Katara, crying, her shoulders shaking as she paced the living room rug.

“What happened?” he choked out, finally feeling his hands stop shaking.

“I dunno,” Katara muttered, voice strangled between tears. “I don’t know Sokka I don’t. They just came and- and-” she sat heavily onto the nearest sofa. “They said I was being deported.”

He couldn’t have heard that right. “Deported?” No way. Yeah, dad was an immigrant, but Sokka and Katara weren’t. They were born here, they had citizenship. Mom had citizenship. She was third generation too, there’s no way they could deport Katara. “You mean dad?” Since dad, maybe, made more sense. Oh, maybe that was why they were holding off on the divorce. Maybe someone had outed them and dad’s green card was null because they were separating. 

He didn’t want dad to be deported.

“No I meant me. Me Sokka!” she howled.

“But…” that didn’t make any sense. 

It didn’t make any sense hours later either as mom, dad and Gran Gran came downstairs. Katara had long stopped crying. Which was worse than actually crying because now she wasn’t fighting to see she’d started making plans. She’d started looking stuff up about green cards and hiding from the government and all sorts that was giving Sokka a near heart attack the longer he thought about his baby sister on the run. 

“Is she really being deported?” Sokka asked before dad could even try and distract them.

Mom and dad shared a look. “It’s,” mom started hesitantly, “It’s not as simple as that sweetie.”

“Yes it is,” Sokka snapped. “Either she’s being deported or she isn’t.” He would have thought the police around too would have been a big enough sign that they couldn’t try and say this was a mistake either. “I don’t get it. I just- I don’t get it, why her? Why not me?” He was older. Surely he should have been deported before her. Or they both should have been together. 

Maybe they were. Maybe Katara just hadn’t told him about that. Was that why Gran Gran was here? Did dad bring her over so she could take them home with her? Oh God she was wasn’t she.

“Sokka calm down,” dad murmured, sliding into the seat next to him. Before Sokka could try and pull away he was being forced into a hug. “It’s gonna be okay.”

But it wasn’t. If he was moving, then that meant he couldn’t get his degree here. He’d have to start again, or transfer or drop out since Gran Gran hadn’t mentioned a university where she lived. He was going to have to get a job hunting or something. He wasn’t going to be able to use his phone or drive his car or anything.

“This is why you should have told them when the girl started showing her gifts,” Gran Gran huffed, sitting herself next to the fire. “I told you Hakoda. I told you it rarely skips two generations. Your father was a bender and your daughter-”

“Kanna!” Mom snapped. Actually snapped. “Enough. I’ll- we don’t even know-”

Gran Gran wasn’t backing down this time, leaning forward in her seat she insisted, “You know Kya. And so do they. You can try and sneak her past them all you like but they’ll find out eventually. She’s untrained. She’s dangerous.”

“I’m what?” Katara wailed.

Mom glared all the harder for that, Katara starting a whole new round of tears as mom tried to tell her that no, Gran Gran was just exaggerating. She had to be. Sokka would know better than anyone that Katara was harmless. She wasn’t dangerous or untrained or anything.

“You need to tell her,” Gran Gran insisted.

“Fine!” dad this time. “Fine. We will mom but-” he fell into his hands, rubbing his face a few times before near begging, “can you just let us do it. Please?”

Gran Gran didn’t look happy. But she stood. Shuffling her way out of the room, she patted dad on the shoulder, much like she had with Sokka, like she didn’t know what would be welcome anymore, and muttered quietly, “I know it’s hard. Believe me.” and left.

There wasn’t much talking for a while. Not while mom was trying to calm Katara down. Dad wasn’t doing much better either. Just sat there, his hands shaking and letting Sokka fall back into the spiral of what he was going to do now. His life was over. Officially over. It’s not like they had different dad’s either. Anyone could see Sokka was Hakoda’s. Since Katara was dad’s too, they shared the same parents, the same grandparents. Was he dangerous too? 

Katara eventually settled enough for mom and dad to have one of their weird glances. Sokka felt his stomach roil as he shuffled himself down, waiting to hear the bad news. 

“I guess we should start with where your dad comes from,” mom said. “It’s called the South Pole.”

“Like the Antarctic?” Katara sniffed.

“Sort of,” mom agreed, letting dad take over.

It was called the South Pole, as in the official South Pole, and it wasn’ how they saw it on TV. It turns out what they thought was the South Pole was just one of the islands between where they lived now and the actual South Pole. They made it look cold and uninhabitable on purpose too. That was a bit much to take in. Especially because, if mom and dad were right, the large stretch of land, the other countries he knew about, were nothing more than a few clustered islands boxed in by other, secret, countries. 

“It’s a well preserved secret,” dad said. “And, there’s lots of precautions the government takes to keep it that way.” namely being picky about who lives in these select countries, which brought them onto the topic of Katara. “Before the split, there were four nations. Earth, Water, Fire and Air,” which sounded like the synopsis for a bad teen drama. “And there were people living there. People like us… and people like your sister.”

“...what do you mean?” Katara whispered.

Mom pulled her in that little bit closer, “Sweetie, surely you’ve noticed things. Little things through the years. Little odd things.”

“Like that summer our drinks never got warm,” dad chimed in.

“Or when you and Sokka were playing in the pool and you got really mad? You remember that? And then that big wave took him?” 

He certainly remembered that. Mom and dad had tried to play it off as a wave pool spontaneously coming on by itself. But it wasn’t a wave pool at all. Not to mention a wave that size was, to Sokka’s small body, much bigger than the ones at wave pools. Yeah, through the years he’d thought because he was small it seemed bigger but, maybe it hadn’t been.

“What does that have to do with anything though?” Katara snapped. “So what? So weird things happened. That’s not my fault!”

Mom pulled her back down, “No. Katara you’re not listening to us.”

So they tried again. They explained all about the Four Nations. How the Air Nomads were monks who flitted between temples. The Earth Kingdom lived in big cities, one with walls so thick it was impossible to get inside. Or, it had been. Dad muttered something about it that gave Sokka a bad feeling. Regardless, the Fire Nation liked their volcanoes and the Water Tribes their Poles. “And they’re named after the elements because, well, because some people, we call them benders,” dad said, “they have control over these elements. Like Katara does.”

“But I don’t,” she said immediately.

“Katara,” mom soothed quietly.

“I don’t!” 

Dad got up, coming back after a moment with a glass of water. Mom dipped the blinds as dad set it in front of Katara. “If you don’t,” dad said, “Then the water won’t move for you.”

Which was enough for Katara to lean forward, face set. She waved her hands, nothing happening. Mom sat back with a sigh, a smile touching the edges of her mouth.

Dad, on the other hand, “Katara, you have to actually try.”

“I did,” she snapped.

“Katara,” he said in a tone Sokka had only ever heard directed at him, and usually only when he was too all over the place to concentrate properly. “I know it’s scary. But if you don’t really, actually try now, if we say they’re wrong, if we think you aren’t and they test you, things… you just have to try.”

Sokka didn’t like what the pause in that sentence led onto. Neither did Katara. Dragging her hands out of dad’s she faced the glass of water again. One deep breath. Then two. Then a flicker of her hand the water moved. A steady stream, nothing like could be done naturally, rose from the glass. Not far. But far enough for the splash back down to bounce onto dad.

“Oh my God. Oh my God dad what’s  _ happening _ .  _ Mom! _ ”

She was always special, Sokka remembered. Always the one they kept an eye on. Always the one they made a point to make all of her swimming lessons and all of her teacher meetings. She always got the attention and now Sokka knew why. 

“Can I do that?” Sokka asked.

Mom shook her head. Dad took the glass, sitting back down with Sokka. “Like we were saying before. There used to be just Four Nations. But then some people. Some non benders, decided they didn’t want to live there anymore.” Apparently there were stirrings, a hundred or so years ago, of a war brewing. The non benders knew it wouldn’t be a fight they were likely to have any say in, so they left. Or, a lot of them did. Enough to start the countries Sokka knew from Geography class. “Back in the day, you had to have come from a long line of non benders to be able to live here. At least third generation. These days… they’re not so strict. But they do require any benders born or not, to adhere to strict rules. One of those being they can’t have permanent residences.”

Hence the deportation.

Sokka shook his head. “I don’t get it. How do you know I’m not one of these bender people?”

“Because you were tested,” mom explained. “Those men at the door. They weren’t deporting your sister. They wouldn’t do that,” mom promised to Katara. “They were just issuing the test. It sometimes happens at school. Or people can have it done privately. It usually happens when someone’s eighteen as well.”

“But she’s not.” She was seventeen, and barely that. 

“We know,” dad sighed. “We think someone else has been monitoring her.”

“Or someone saw you do something at school,” mom directed at Katara.

Her eyes flickered between them. “Well I don’t know. I didn’t know what to keep secret did I?” she huffed. Which was a fair point. 

“So that’s why Gran Gran’s here then?” Sokka filled in. “If Katara doesn’t pass the test we really are going back with her.”

“No,” mom said, but dad’s “Yes,” was louder. There was a long staring match before dad reminded her, “she can’t stay here permanently.”

“She can still be educated,” mom said. “We can get her a student visa. That’s more than-”

“You know as well as I do that they’ll insist on a years train-”

“She is not going there without me!” 

Dad held his hands up, “I never said she was.”

“But that’s what  _ she  _ thinks,” mom pointed to the closed door. “I know she does. She never liked me-”

“That’s not true-”

There was a bang from that closed door, Gran Gran’s voice filtering through after a second. “If you’re going to fight, put the children upstairs.”

Children. He wasn’t a child anymore. But he supposed Katara was since mom sent her up, promising they’d talk later. Sokka followed without even being asked anyway because Katara was upset and he- he needed to get his head around this.

The door closed with Gran Gran on the inside when Sokka was halfway up. He couldn’t help feeling, hearing the snick echo through his head, that nothing would ever be normal again. It was different to going to Uni. At least at Uni he knew he could go home. He could sleep in his childhood bed and, while he knew his parents weren’t together, listen to them try for Katara’s sake.  _ This. _ Magic and Kingdoms and freaking deportation? This wasn’t normal, and the worst part was, Sokka knew that he was caught in this as well now.


	2. Chapter 2

Breakfast was quiet that next morning. Lunch too. By dinner, Gran Gran had enough of mom and dad trying to pretend this wasn’t happening and went upstairs to talk to Katara. She at least got Katara down for supper, but it wasn’t like anyone was talking there either.

The day after, in comparison, was full of noise. Sokka woke to an argument in his parent’s room. It was still going on as he showered for the day, wandering downstairs to find Katara awake, and Gran Gran quietly telling her all the things she’d told Sokka days ago about her home in the South Pole.

“Not that you’ll be going there,” Gran Gran said.

“Why not?” like she’d just accepted at this point that she was going somewhere. Somewhere not here. Suddenly the toast on his place didn’t look as appetising.

Gran Gran’s fingers drummed gently against the table before she asked, “Did your father tell you why I sent him here?”

“No.”

He didn’t really get past explaining the Four Nations really. “Well,” Gran Gran sighed. “Back home, there’s a war going on.”

“A bender war.” Sokka remembered dad saying that much. That it was because there were rumours of benders fighting that the non benders decided to leave and God did that still sound strange to him. 

“In a way,” Gran Gran agreed. “At this point it’s more like an all out war, benders and non benders fighting alike. Now I told you about my home.” They nodded, Sokka wondering if he was going to have to make his own coat or if Gran Gran could help him find a decent non animal skinned one he could live the rest of his life in. “Well, a few years ago, when your father was a child, there began to be raids on the South Pole. We didn’t have a lot, and they didn’t want a lot, just our benders. Your father was a lovely little boy, he wanted to be chief you know. But I couldn’t let that happen to him, and when I left my own home as a girl, I remembered rumours about a place where non benders could be safe. So I took your father and had one of the men sail us around the Pole until we found the base. They told me they could take him. That there were schools where he could be educated, but if he were a bender he would have to return when he was eighteen.”

“But he’s not,” he couldn’t be since he was still here.

“No,” Gran Gran agreed. “And I’m all the more thankful for it. Especially when he met Kya. I know your mother thinks I don’t like her, but she’s the best thing that could have happened to Hakoda. If she hadn’t made him stay I don’t think he would be alive right now.”

It was a lot to swallow, and Sokka felt all the more for Gran Gran. 

“Why didn’t you come here?” Katara asked. “They let dad.”

“They did,” Gran Gran agreed. “And I suppose I was too attached to my new home. It was also a lot stricter back then. You had to be at least a third generation non bender before they considered letting you in. It’s not the same now but,” she nodded, “at the time that was how it was done.”

Which meant the testing was new. “I don’t remember being tested,” Sokka said. Since he didn’t. He’d thought about it all last night trying to remember if there’d been any weird tests in school but, no, there hadn’t been.

“You wouldn’t,” Gran Gran said. “Your father says if it’s done in school they make you do a lot of sports. Specific ones in the hopes something will happen. Maybe anger someone while they’re swimming, or heckle them when they’re wrestling or whatever they have you do there.”

Oh. That made more sense then. He did remember a weird part of his P.E. education. But, honestly, he thought that was just how it went when someone got to the end of their school years. It turns out it was, but, not for the reasons he was thinking of. 

“So they took all the South Pole benders?” Katara prompted.

Gran Gran nodded. “All of them. The last one around eight years ago. The raids stopped after that. I sometimes think they were searching for the Avatar but… they would have shown up now if they were alive.”

“So,” Katara figured out, “the Water Tribes are at the Poles, and I’m guessing their benders are waterbenders?” Gran Gran nodded again, “So, that means, if there’s no waterbenders at the South Pole, I’d have to go to the North?”

“Unfortunately yes,” Gran Gran sighed.

Sokka’s gossip radar was tingling, “Why unfortunately?”

She sent him an unimpressed glare, “nothing that will impact the two of you trust me.”

There was more talk. Gran Gran was calmer than mom and dad explaining things. She promised the North Pole wasn’t completely monstrous. The northern lights were beautiful as well, something that would definitely make the trip worth it if just to see them. She told Katara about the schools they had there. That Katara could learn how to heal people with her gifts. How they weren’t as backwards as they were probably thinking because they lagged a few technological advancements. 

Which reminded Sokka, “Why don’t we help? Like the non benders. Why don’t they help end the war?”

Gran Gran’s mouth twisted, “There’s an agreement in place. So long as our two civilisations don’t bother the other they’ll gladly stay out of each other’s way. Not that that’s going to stop the Fire Nation,” she muttered. “But don’t worry about that,” she said a little louder, going back to explaining about the different animals that could be found at the North Pole. Animals that weird hybrids of stuff Sokka didn’t think should ever mate with each other.

Seriously. How on earth did a tiger seal come into existence? Just- how- why? What did that even look like? 

He was both curious and horrified at all the possibilities that came to mind. It was certainly enough to distract him the rest of the day, his desk full of weird tiger seal hybrids come supper. He showed each one of them to Gran Gran, all of them being shot down. “What on earth even is that one?” Katara laughed, and while Sokka was happy to see her smiling, he didn’t enjoy his art being the reason why.

“Mom, Katara’s quelling my creative spirit.”

“What creative spirit.”

“Mom, Katara’s being mean to me.”

“Both of you stop it,” mom called, then, “Hakoda hang Sokka’s artwork on the fridge for him will you. If he’s that eager to argue about it then it must be museum worthy.”

“Dad, Mom’s being mean about me.” Seriously, everyone in this house was against him.

Well, everyone except dad. He took one look at Sokka’s drawing and told him, “You got the design wrong but it looks alright to me.” Which was just further proof that his drawing was crap since, as his mom told him, his dad couldn’t draw to save his life. Of course he, who Sokka got this creative gene from, would think it was great. 

It found its way onto the fridge anyway, Sokka digging into his supper so, hopefully, no one could critique his artistic skills anymore. 

He needn’t have worried. The topic for that night, finally, was what was going to happen now. Mom sort of had a point that Katara could stay here. She was being tested, but until she was eighteen she was legally allowed to stay in this country. That was a year away. More than enough time for preparations to be made and mom and dad more ready to let her go. But the point of the matter was that she was going to have to go. Benders just, they weren’t allowed. They could study, they could holiday here but they couldn’t live here. Those were the rules. What’s more, Sokka learned, if a bender did marry a non bender in this country, the non bender would have to move to the bender’s country instead of the other way around. Apparently the ‘bloodline was tainted’ as soon as the vows had been said. Which meant, try as they might, even if she got a student visa, they’d get, what, three, maybe four years more with Katara here?

Which wasn’t good. 

It wasn’t like they would be able to keep in contact with Katara either. No phones. No laptops. No Wifi, which was honestly painful to even think about. Apparently Gran Gran got her letter from dad from a hawk. An honest to God hawk. It was like they were living in Lord of the Rings or something. Which was kind of cool. He always liked the idea of living there in that broad sense everyone wishes they could live in a land of magic. If he could bring his phone, maybe he would be happier with the idea of living there, but no signal existed, and since there was some sort of cold peace between here and the Four Nations it didn’t look like here was willing to give that technology over to the Four Nations any time soon.

So what now? 

“Well, obviously Katara remains here until she’s eighteen,” mom said, tone brokering no arguments.

“Then what?” Katara asked quietly.

“Then…” she glanced at dad.

Dad sighed, “We were gonna separate anyway,” he muttered.

“Not like this we weren’t,” mom muttered back.

“I’m going to the North Pole with your Gran Gran,” dad said, louder this time. “We’ve decided that I’ll find a job, find a home and, when it’s time, you’ll have someone there waiting for you.”

“But dad-”

“Katara,” he pulled her in for a short hug, “this is the best way.” He kissed the top of her head, “I’ve lived there before. I know how to live there, and the North Pole is much… better,” he seemed to force out, “than the South. Trust me, by the time you’ve finished your gap year training you’ll love the Water Tribe just as much as I do.”

Then why didn’t he go back, Sokka wanted to ask. Mom could have gone with him. Yet here they were. Here he was. 

“Then what?” Katara pressed, a tear smudging its way down her cheek.

“Then,” dad sighed, “then you study here with mom, and you go back with me, and it’ll be great. It’ll be a nice, easy transition.”

“Yeah,” she snorted wetly, “Apart from the fact my family, my friends, are here and I’ll never see them again once I’ve finished Uni. This sucks!” she left, the table still rattling as Sokka heard her door slam upstairs.

“Well that went well,” Sokka said.

“Sokka,” mom warned.

“What? She didn’t waterbend us to death did she? I’d say that’s a win.”

He still got a warning look for it, but he was right. He’d spent all night thinking of ways Katara could have killed him over the years, the foremost being that wave she’d whacked him with when they were kids. She had power over water. Like, were there limits? How exactly did that work? Could she just waterbend his blood from his body? Dehydrate him to death? He didn’t know and it was bugging him more than the idea of a tiger seal.

He spent that night on the phone. Both looking up stuff and phoning people he knew. He just, he needed to hear some outside voices for a while. People who weren’t almost on the verge of a breakdown.

By morning, tired and hungry, he knocked on his parents door, studiously ignoring the airbed crouched behind the actual bed as dad opened the door. “Sokka,” dad pushed him that little bit further into the hallway, mom’s snores cut off by the door, “What’s wrong?”

“I’m coming with you.” 

“Sokka…” 

“I am.” He’d thought, well maybe not long and hard about it, but he’d thought it through enough. “I pulled out of uni last night. And my stuff I guess mom can get or something-”

“Sokka-”

“Dad please.” It couldn’t just be Katara. It wasn’t fair that it was just Katara. “She’s spending the rest of her life there. The least I can do is spend it with her. It’s not her fault she got unlucky.” That could have been him. By all rights, according to Gran Gran, it should have been him. But it wasn’t. He was apparently a non bender. Which was fine. He could live with that. But Katara? “Even if it’s just for a couple of years until she’s settled I just- I need to try first. I need to show her it’s gonna be okay.” He could re-enroll in university. Hell, some people didn’t even go until they were older, and Sokka had never really known what he was going to do with his life anyway. He may as well spend the time he would have wasted on a degree actually being productive and having one of those really long inner thoughts about it. 

He found himself against his dad’s shoulder, arms squeezing him tight. “You’re a good kid, you know that right?”

“I mean it’s touch and go, you guys really do send mixed signals.” 

There was a huff of a laugh and then his dad stepped back. He scrutinised Sokka for a moment, “You’re an adult. I can’t stop you if you really want to go, but it’s not gonna be easy. Sokka things aren’t-” he sighed.

“Gran Gran told us there was a war,” all the more reason to check this place out before his sister went there in his book. “She also said the North Pole is like, still okay so, I mean, it can’t be that bad.”

Dad laughed, a small thing, “Oh you’re gonna get such a culture shock.”

“Wha- well what about you. I’m young, I can adapt. You’ve been here much longer than I have dad.” which meant they were probably gonna have to rely on Gran Gran to help them both out. A sobering thought if there ever were one. “Mom’s not gonna be happy, is she?”

“She’s not happy with any of this,” Dad sighed. “But you know what, you’re right,” he clasped Sokka’s shoulder, “Maybe if we show her we’re alright, she won’t feel so afraid to let Kartara go.”

That wasn’t to say she was happy letting Sokka go. Not at all. As soon as mom woke Sokka decided to just get it over with, and told her what he’d told dad this morning. She didn’t take it half as well as dad. Where dad was full of understanding and, maybe, a little happy that he wouldn’t be alone with just his mom for the next year, Sokka’s mom was furious. She started with Sokka first, telling him he was throwing his life away and making a big mistake and all those other things every mom says when she wants to tell her kids they’ve made the wrong decision. After that came the threats. The promises she’d find some way to keep Sokka here if it was the last thing she’d do. After that came the arguments with dad. She thought he’d put this idea into Sokka’s head and, wow, dad took it like a champ. 

Really it all boiled down to one thing. He was an adult. No matter the threats, the passive aggressive comments, the way she tried to call up his uni herself and re-enroll him, she couldn’t stop him from going.

Which meant the last few weeks were a nightmare. Gran Gran was pretty helpful however. She joined dad and him on their trips to town to find supplies. 

Supplies. Like survival stuff because this wasn’t going to be a cruise over to the North Pole. As soon as they touched on the border they were on their own. Which meant Gran Gran was sending hawks, weird looking hawks, left right and centre to arrange passage for them. Dad, with his limited childhood memory of travelling, started looking for warmer clothes. Gran Gran on the other hand went the food route. Something Sokka was taking immense pleasure in as Gran Gran insisted he eat as much as he could before they left.

“You won’t be finding these things when you cross the border,” she told him, stuffing her own face with pastries.

Sokka had never been happier.

The night before departure Sokka found his stomach in knots. The last time he’d flown had been for a family holiday. Mom had been fussing every other hour, and him and Katara had been forced to go to bed early, the two of them staying up all night because they were so excited to go somewhere new. This wasn’t like that. He wasn’t not excited. But the excitement he did feel was one that also made him want to puke and maybe grovel to mom to come up with some excuse for why he couldn’t go with dad.

Gran Gran had promised she’d sort them out with proper Water Tribe clothes as soon as they got to the North Pole. Which meant they had to rely on the clothes dad got them. The clothes Gran Gran had pulled faces at and did not bode well in Sokka’s book to keep him warm until Gran Gran got those clothes she promised.

He was gonna have to find a job. Sokka didn’t know what sort of jobs those were either. Gran Gran promised not everyone hunted. Not in the North Pole anyway. In the North Pole there was more opportunity. But more opportunity for what? Especially a non bender. They left for a reason right? More than just a war. There would be no checking his phone for odd retail jobs or driving his car to get to those jobs. Gran Gran said they used boats but Sokka couldn’t sail and there were probably other people who sailed better than him who would get the job over him and this wasn’t going to go well. What was he thinking?

As if manifested from his thoughts Katara pushed her way into his room just after dad told him to get some sleep. “You don’t have to do this you know,” she said.

He sighed, head in his hands, “I do.” He did, because when it came down to it this wasn’t just about him. He just had to keep telling himself that. He plastered a smile onto his face, “It’s fine Katara. Really. I’m just dreading the cold.” It didn’t snow that much here. When it did, yeah, it was fun. He enjoyed sledding and building snowmen and all that. But it was gone after a few weeks. There, it would be forever. 

“You shouldn’t have to do this. It’s not fair.”

No. It wasn’t. But, “I mean, think of it this way,” because he could very well come home but she couldn’t and Katara was the one whos life hinged on him showing her this was alright. “You remember all those books we used to read as kids? The ones with the witches or the kickass warriors?” 

She nodded. 

“Well you’re just like that. You’re special. You’re basically in your very own teen sci-fi novel. And I know that I wanna be there with you to help you be whatever chosen one you are. But, I mean, I’m not special Katara. I’m gonna need a few months before I’m ready to really help you. So I need to do this. Not for you but for me, because this could very well have been me. And it’s not fair that only one of us has to go through this.”

“I love you.”

“Love you too.”

She didn’t leave. For a while they sat and Sokka found some movie or another to play. He wasn’t really paying attention. He probably should have since TV’s weren’t something he was likely to see for years now. But he didn’t. All he did remember of that night was Katara asking, “Do you think there’ll be a lot of people there?”

“Don’t know.” Gran Gran said it was a city, but Sokka still thought of those barren fields of ice whenever he thought of the North Pole. “Maybe there’s elves. Maybe Gran Gran’s an elf.”

Katara laughed. “Maybe.” She knocked his shoulder, “I’m gonna miss you.”

“Nah. You won’t.” She had school and her friends and mom. She wasn’t uprooting her life just yet. But he’d miss her, that much he knew. “You did just fine when I went to uni. It’s just like that. The only difference is that you just have to imagine I’m too hungover to grab the train home.”

She laughed again, barrelling herself into him. It wasn’t the last hug they’d share before he left, but it sure felt like it. Her hair smelled nice too. Urgh he should have bought more shampoo, he definitely didn’t have enough for a year. Which meant he was gonna have to use whatever they used over there. 

The panic was starting to set in. 

Somehow he managed to sleep. Mom was the one who shook him awake, following him like it was his first day at uni all over again, making sure he had his bags, that his bags had his clothes and his toiletries and his stuffed wolf who’d come with him on every adventure he’d had since he was five.

“I’m not a baby,” he said just like he had when he went to uni. Still, Mr Fluffy found himself on Sokka’s knee as mom drove them all to the airport. 

The plane that would take them to the border was a small one. Tiny. Sokka half hoped this was a joke and the proper plane would come around the corner any second now. But it didn’t. Mom was gone. Katara was gone, and now Sokka was getting on a tiny plane that could very well kill them before they even made it to the border.

Dad’s hand landed on his shoulder. “It’s gonna be okay Sokka.” 

“Yeah.” they wouldn’t let it on the tarmac if it wasn’t. “Sure.” Besides, “I gotta toughen up somehow right. May as well start with a death plane.”

“Don’t be so dramatic,” Gran Gran tutted, handing over her bags to the pilot. 

He stepped onto the plane, which was a feat in and of itself. Sokka honestly thought he wouldn’t. He thought, at some point, he’d just turn around and run home. But no. He didn’t. It didn’t make strapping himself in any better, but he did feel a little accomplished to actually be here, sitting on the plane itself. He’d done that much. He’d committed. He could do the rest of this too.

The plane ride itself wasn’t as terrifying after the first few hours. His hands slowly unclenched from his sides enough to get feeling back into them. 

It was a six hour flight all in all. The border they landed in was near the Earth Kingdom, the base itself a boxed off runway with sharp fence spreading out across the whole stretch of land. Customs here was different to how Sokka remembered. They patted him down and actually took his phone off him. Gran Gran had told him they would, but it was still awful to watch it be walked away from him. They let him keep the rest of his stuff. His Ipod was fine, although they did tell him there were no outlets whatsoever in the Four Nations so good luck to him there. Really they were just looking for communication devices. Intelligence they didn’t want being passed over to people that could use it to help whatever war he was stepping into.

He felt slightly sick as he met up with Gran Gran and dad on the other side. There were no familiar shops for him to buy some last minute sweets at. No magazine stand. Just the exit and the barren earth beyond.

They didn’t have a ride to the harbour, which meant Sokka had to walk Gran Gran’s speed the entire way there. It wasn’t like he could run ahead and put their stuff away so they’d have less to carry either. Sokka didn’t know where they were going, and neither did dad, his face pinched as he looked around a border he’d never been to before.

“It’ll be fine,” dad said as he caught Sokka’s eye. 

“Right.”

The harbour came into view after an hour or so of walking. Sokka’s feet were already hurting, his boots rubbing uncomfortably against his heels. The sea that stretched out when the small wooden planks that constituted a port came into view was… the same. It didn’t look any different to any other ocean. It had probably been a stupid thought that it would, but Sokka didn’t know what to expect right now. 

Dad, on the other hand, as soon as the ocean came into view, split into a grin. “That’s a Water Tribe ship!” he laughed. “Sokka,” he called like Sokka couldn’t see the small wooden boat from here. “Mom that’s one of ours.”

Gran Gran shot a small smile at dad. “A few men were in the area. One in particular. He promised to take us North.”

“What?” Dad’s smile was still stuck on his face even as he walked that little bit faster to the boat, “But mom it’s like halfway across the world. And another halfway to the North Pole. What are they doing so far out?”

“I’ll let him explain it,” Gran Gran said, Sokka not even sure dad heard her he’d jogged that little big ahead again. She shared a fond smile with Sokka and yeah, it was kind of nice to see his dad so excited. He’d always liked fishing back home. He’d always talked about getting a proper boat, or Sokka and him building one from scratch when Sokka had the summer free. He’d just never had the means to connect the dots on why dad was so eager to get onto the ocean until he saw dad abandon his bags and flat out run the rest of the way to the Southern Water Tribe boat. 

Sokka dragged dad’s bags the rest of the way, well and truly tired by the time his feet hit the soft grassy sand that surrounded the wooden port. 

“Well someone’s excited,” came as soon as Sokka set the bags down. There was a man behind him. His face sun weathered and hair long yet some of it up in the style Gran Gran had put Sokka’s in those weeks ago. His eyes were a deep blue and fixed steadily on Sokka. Entranced, he’d almost say, which made him that little bit uncomfortable. They flickered away from him, a smile breaking out, “Kanna.” He greeted Gran Gran warmly, wrapping her in a short hug. “How were the metal birds?”

“Awful,” she tutted. “Much better to travel by boat in my opinion.”

The man laughed, eyes flicking back onto Sokka, “So you must be Sokka. Kanna’s told me a lot about you.”

“She has?” Again, call him stupid, but he didn’t think she’d be the one to gossip about grandkids who didn’t even visit her. 

Yet the man merely nodded like it wasn’t even a question. “Of course. You should have seen how happy she was when she heard her grandson was going to be a scholar. You must have a big brain up there.”

“Heh. Yeah, I guess I do.” He did get into his first choice after all.

“You look a lot like your dad,” the man said, “And speaking of, Hakoda are you finished kissing my boat or should we leave you alone for a few hours?”

“Bato,” Gran Gran scolded.

Bato didn’t care, his eyes practically lighting up as dad stopped trying to climb into the boat and saw their, Sokka assumed, captain. Dad’s brow was furrowed even as his smile still stood in place as he walked over. “Don’t tell me you don’t remember me,” Bato grinned.

Dad’s eyes narrowed, “It’s been a few years.”

Gran Gran sighed, “Honestly. Hakoda it’s Bato. Don’t be too hard on him,” she warned Bato, “He lives in a city, he’s seen thousands of other faces since he’s been away, and you’re not the young boy you used to be.”

“Ouch,” Bato laughed.

“No way,” dad breathed, flinging himself at Bato not two seconds later. 

Gran Gran took Sokka’s arm, handing a few bags to him, “Best let them catch up,” she said, steering him onto the boat.

It wasn’t as unsteady as Sokka thought it would be. By that he meant his foot didn’t immediately go through the wood and into the ocean. It was small however. The sail looked worn too, and the edges chipped and roped, sometimes nailed, back together. It wasn’t a new boat, that was for sure. But it was well loved, and, if Bato had sailed it here, then it was probably broken in enough for Sokka not to feel too worried about staying here. 

Gran Gran led them inside where a row of hammocks were hung up. There were seven in total, one already claimed by blankets of actual fur. Sokka took the one next to Gran Gran, dragging his blankets out of his bag in case he forgot later. He may have put Mr Fluffy in his hammock too, telling himself again that this was fine. It was an adventure. 

Footsteps clamoured down, dad laughing as he looked around the room. “It’s just like being home.”

“Except it’s warmer,” Bato huffed. “Earth Kingdom’s in the dry season right now. Fire Nation’s even worse. It’s gonna be a nightmare sailing past both of them.”

Which was that for the rest of the day. They didn’t set sail. Instead Bato led them on a tour, telling them it would be dark in an hour or so, which meant it was too late to get a good few miles between here and the North Pole. So the boat would stay harboured, and if dad liked, they could always camp on the beach. Bato definitely was.

“I love that boat, but I’ve been sleeping on it for the past eight years. It’s nice to mix it up every now and then.”

“Eight years?” it was later, the sun finally set and a fire lit on the beach. Dad had grabbed his stuff as soon as Bato suggested sleeping outside, the idea of bugs in his hair not even crossing his mind as he shoved it next to Bato’s. Sokka had kept his own on the ship, figuring he had to get used to it at some point. He would have like to be there now, but Gran Gran insisted on him having something to eat before he turned in. Hence being here, listening to Bato tell about a raid on his village.

On Sokka’s dad’s village, and how the men had decided to fight back. That meant years out at sea. People dying. People being hurt. The latter the reason why Bato was able to come get them. He shoved a side of his shirt, tunic?, off the skin underneath blistered raw. The wound was old, the majority of it, but Sokka could see where the new blisters had popped up they were in the shape of a handprint. “I need to stop leaving my side open.” Like that was the problem with what Sokka was seeing.

Dad hissed in sympathy, head bowed a little over the fire. “I wish I was there.”

“No you don’t,” Gran Gran warned.

“She’s right,” Bato said. “Trust me, no one would’ve wanted you to be there Hakoda. Especially not with your little ones.”

“I can’t have been the only one though,” dad muttered.

“No,” Bato agreed. “But you’re the only one with a waterbending kid. Hakoda if they’d found Katara…” So they knew about Katara then. Had Gran Gran told him in her letters or when he was still back at the South Pole?

Talk turned after that. Apparently people could be snooty from the South Pole since Bato complained and complained and complained about the awful Earth Kingdom food. Dad made him try a few of their ‘rations’, Bato twisting his face at every single one but the jerky. Even then he said it tasted weird. “Well they have weird animals where I live,” dad laughed. “Did you know there’re deers.”

“Deer what?”

“Just deers. Like a deer.”

Bato had a face Sokka could relate to right then. Like the concept of just a deer was insane and unimaginable. Which was insane because a deer was a deer but, Sokka supposed, he’d probably never see just a deer again. 

After the plane and the stress of the day Sokka wasn’t surprised when he fell asleep. He was surprised that he’d fallen asleep on the beach instead of in his hammock like he’d wanted to. Dad spent all morning laughing at him as he tried to brush every strand of sand out of his hair. Sue him, it was itchy, and just because dad was more used to roughing it did not make Sokka’s feelings any less valid.

It was early when they set off. Like the sun had just risen early. While Gran Gran went to relax below deck Sokka did not have the luxury. Dad insisted on the pair of them helping out. In fact, “The North Pole uses boats Sokka. The faster you learn to sail the easier time you’ll have.” which Sokka couldn’t argue against. 

That didn’t mean he enjoyed being awake this early in the morning listening to Bato show him how to hoist a sail. 

Knots were awful. Knots where the rope was wet were even more awful. He got his first cut not even an hour in, and it only grew worse from there. The mop to swab the deck was rough wood that cut splinters into his skin. He fell when he tried to help dad hold a rope steady, the wind almost knocking him overboard. His knees were bruised from falling again as the boat tilted a bit too left and he just, he was so tired. 

But the thing of it was, there was no one else to help. Bato was injured too, and dad insisted he take it easy, the burn on an uncomfortable part of his shoulder. Everyone else who might have helped keep this ship afloat were currently back at war. So Sokka, as much as he wanted to complain, didn’t. 

Well, he held it in until he was below deck with Gran Gran, after that he found his ouchies too much for even him to keep quiet about. Gran Gran was nice about it. Or, as nice as she could be about it. She told Sokka outright that Hakoda had babied him, and it wasn’t his fault he’d grown up in the cushy house he had. It felt a bit like an insult, but in true grandma fashion, despite the years of no contact, she had no problem helping him baby his wounds. 

“Ask Bato for some gloves. I told him to bring you clothes when he met with us. I think he’s waiting until we get further North but the gloves should help with the ropes.”

They were special gloves. Ones that wouldn’t slip and rip the rope from his hands if he wore them. Bato had to go through three of them to get Sokka’s size, the dark weird material not too constricting. Gran Gran was right about the other clothes as well. Bato had a full trunk of spares for dad and Sokka, the pair of them trying on thick furs and light under tunics by candlelight. Sokka was surprised how small some of the clothes were. Not like kids clothes or anything, but smaller than him for sure, and Sokka wasn’t exactly a big guy. It made him wonder who gave them up. Or if they even had. Dead men only cared about the clothes they were wearing when they died after all.

The new gloves helped him not cut open his hands. They didn’t stop him from falling over. Which wasn’t fair because dad wasn’t falling over. Oh no, him and Bato were having a grand time strolling around the ship like the concept of gravity didn’t exist. Dad found the whole thing hilarious, only helping Sokka up those first four times before he found himself too busy laughing to even think about helping his poor son.

“This is gonna be in my letter,” Sokka warned, “Dear mom, dad’s being a jerk.”

“You’re actually writing home?” Dad laughed, then turned to Bato, “When this kid was at Uni the only times we’d hear from him was when he buttdialed us on a night out.”

“It happened twice!” Two times. Considering he’d been out far more than that he didn’t know why dad was holding that against him. 

Bato snorted even as he asked what a buttdial was. Sokka hated it. It was like he was being ganged up on. Seriously, couldn’t Gran Gran have asked someone who wasn’t dad’s old best friend to come get them? This was so unfair.

Gran Gran wasn’t any help either. She seemed in her element having her son back in their native land. Or, near enough to it. Especially one morning when dad came out wearing one of those loose tunics Bato sported. Sokka even saw Bato take a double take, dad flexing his hands in his own gloves as he made his way to Sokka’s safe space for practicing knots.

“Are you okay?” Dad asked, taking a practice rope off Sokka and tying it expertly.

“Yeah.” the blue looked nice on dad. He supposed he should start wearing his own new clothes too. “I just, I dunno. I keep expecting none of this to be real.”

Dad pursed his lips nodding, “I get it.”

“You do?”

He huffed, “You don’t think it took awhile for me to accept there was a place out there without any benders?” Sokka hadn’t thought about that. “It was scary, being in this new place without mom. All the kids my age had weird devices and spoke about things I didn’t understand. I thought they were speaking a different language at one point. But, I adapted. I met your mom. I had you guys. I know it’s not the same. This place isn’t as comfy as where we lived, but, I still missed it. This place always felt real to me.”

He didn’t know what to say to that. So he didn’t, and dad quickly moved onto showing Sokka how to make a figure eight again. 

Around mid afternoon Bato broke out the fishing lines. Gran Gran sat herself with one as well as dad, the two of them happily leaving Sokka to swab the deck. Again. Which was maybe for the best since he had always let his fish go the odd times dad had brought him fishing. Not whack them with a club like dad did as soon as he got his over the side. It was a little more… brutal than Sokka had been expecting. But, no different to normal fishing, so he guessed it wasn’t too out of the norm. Maybe it was just being here that made things look different.

About a week out at sea, dad rushed him out of bed, practically dragging him above board, Sokka flailing himself into his pants expecting rain or something drastic to hit his face. But there wasn’t. The sun was barely rising from the back of the ocean, the boat itself intact and bobbing along gently with the waves that still didn’t make his stomach feel right. No danger. No storm or pirates or anything that would warrant being up this early. Yet there Sokka was, and there dad was dragging him to the side of the boat.

“Look,” dad pointed, Sokka glaring as best he could through his dwindling panic. Then finally gave in when he figured he might as well see what dad was going on about. 

He was sort of glad he did. At first, he couldn’t really make out what dad was so excited about. Not until it jumped up and nearly whacked Sokka in the face. It was huge. Also familiar. “Is that a dolphin?”

It was but it also wasn’t. It was dolphin like in shape and colour. But where its grey fins should be were purple fins that let them glide a few seconds above water before sinking back in. “They’re flying dolphin fish,” dad said. “They usually hang around the Earth Kingdom, which means we’re getting close.”

“Huh.” The Earth Kingdom. Dad said they would stop at a few ports before journeying non stop to the North Pole. It wasn’t sightseeing per se. More filling up on rations and things that might come in handy when they rocked up homeless to the North. Still, it would be the first proper stretch of land Sokka saw in this new world. He still didn’t know how to think about that. But the dolphins were pretty cool, he’d give them that. “How long do you think it’ll take before we actually get there?”

“The North Pole?” dad checked. He blew out a breath, “No idea. Mom said it took her months to make it from the North to the South Pole. We started a little closer than her,” On the tip of the border separating the Earth Kingdom and the colonies actually, “so, I don’t know. Bato says a month.”

“A month,” Sokka repeated. A month on a boat. A month longer on a boat. A month before he’d have to job hunt and shiver himself to sleep. He sort of wished they could have landed at a closer border just so he wouldn’t have to spend a month worrying, but, according to Gran Gran, the border closest to the North Pole led into Fire Nation waters, and the more they could sail around that the better. 

Dad knocked his shoulder, “It won’t be too bad.”

“I know.” He was just being dramatic. As usual. 

Besides, a month wasn’t that long. In fact it felt like only hours after dad showed him a flying dolphin fish for the first time that he saw the Earth Kingdom. It was… a lot of green. Which was nice. It reminded him of those commercials of different countries with those long hiking tours. Somewhere he might have wanted to explore, had dad not boat bound him after Bato told them to remain inconspicuous. The ports, it turned out, had Fire Navy vessels littering their shores. Again, not strictly a bad thing for dad and Sokka, but Bato was definitely Water Tribe, and Gran Gran muttered so many curses the Fire Nation’s way it was unanimously agreed that she wasn’t allowed onto land in case they heard her. So Sokka’s restless legs had to content themselves with the wooden deck.

At least he was getting better at sailing. A month wasn’t long enough for him to be a master sailer or anything, but Sokka no longer hated the sight of ropes as they waved the Earth Kingdom goodbye. He stopped falling so often too, and dad told him his knots were actually holding when he went to check them. As soon as they skirted around the worst of the Fire Nation, the air turning that little bit colder almost overnight, Dad and Bato dragged him on deck. 

It was dark, dad tucking in Sokka’s blanket that little bit further as they huddled near the steer. The stars… he’d always gone in as soon as the sun set, dad telling him it was dangerous to be on deck when nightfall hit. But they were gorgeous. Without the artificial lights Sokka was used to he could actually see where the dark and light separated. They didn’t blur in his vision, or look cloudy and far away. Bato took his hand, adjusting it until it was to his liking, and for a few hours he showed Sokka how to find North without a compass. There were stories too. Of warriors and Avatars. Things he would have known just as well as Bato had he grown up in the Southern Water Tribe. That wasn’t to say he didn’t know any of them. He recognised a few. “I think mom used to tell us that one,” but the polar bear dog had been just a polar bear.

“She will have,” Dad agreed. “She knew these stories too. Her great grandmother was from the South Pole.”

“Really?” So it wasn’t just dad then. 

“Her great grandmother went there to study, I think. There aren’t a lot of… prospects, for a girl in the South. Everything back then was an even closely guarded secret, but she told her kids the same stories we used to, and they told them, and then your mom heard them.” he laughed, “I’ll never forget the day she realised I knew them too. She was so mad. She thought her great grandma was the one to make them up. She had plans, I think, to publish them, which she could have done. But,” he shrugged.

“Water Tribe’s in her blood then,” Bato said. “She’ll fit right in when she comes over.”

Dad made a disagreeing noise, the two of them sharing a look over Sokka’s head. He paid it no mind. They’d been doing it a lot lately. Gran Gran said it was just catching up, and right then, with the stars looking down at him, he didn’t want to check to see if she was wrong.

With the frigid air came the layers. At first it was just the coat. Then it was an undershirt and the coat. Then it was three layers then the coat. He wished more than anything he knew where he’d put his hat as the icy wind cut against his ears. For once, dad wasn’t doing so great either. While he was happy to see the snow, that happiness quickly faded as he swore about how he’d forgotten how unforgiving the Poles could be.

“Baby,” Bato snorted, Gran Gran agreeing as she looked to the horizon. 

Sokka made the mistake one morning of trying one of the coats from home. Purely because his other coat was starting to stink a bit. As soon as he got above deck however, he actually agreed with Gran Gran that those people did not know what they were talking about when they said it helped keep in body heat. Sokka gladly breathed in the stench of his own sweat after that so long as it kept him semi warm.

It was harder to keep the ropes steady in the cold. They had the added danger of snowstorms, icebergs, seals that didn’t get the message and tried to bark hello at them. Yes, Sokka saw them, and yes they were very cute and very exotic and wow, okay Gran Gran his design definitely wasn’t anywhere close to resembling a real tiger seal but they seriously needed to stop knocking the boat. Sokka couldn’t afford to go overboard here. Hypothermia was still a very dangerous, and realer than ever, concern for him, and even dad was starting to look worried when Sokka got a bit too close to the edge of the boat these days. 

A day out from the North Pole, Gran Gran forced him in front of her again. He didn’t know how she was even touching his hair, he hadn’t washed it since those blessedly hot Fire Nation waters had disappeared from sight. But she did, and in fact showed him a neat trick that saved him from washing it as often as he had been in the first place. “We’ll get you into a nice steam bath as soon as we find lodgings,” she said despite all those tips, dragging his hair back and tying it in place. She sorted his clothes out in the morning, straightening his coat and making sure his underlayers weren’t letting any cold escape before moving onto dad.

At midday Sokka finally caught a glimpse of the North Pole capital. 

Huge ice walls rose up and covered a good stretch of the water. Even outside there were boats tied to random patches of snow, Sokka vaguely able to hear odd calls on the wind. Behind the wall he caught a glimpse of a large structure, its spires rising high enough to be seen but low enough to be protected. 

It was definitely surreal. Maybe that was because he could never make an igloo that managed to stay up past construction. Or maybe it was just the fact that this was his home now that was finally sinking in. Either way he wasn’t feeling his best as Bato drew up to the gates and called up for entry.

It took half an hour for the gates to be opened. Well, it took half an hour for Bato to be verified, the actual opening of the gates was, it was fast, the gate itself seeming to both lower and disappear into nothing, Sokka catching people on the other side making weird hand gestures as it formed back up behind them. They were waterbenders, he realised. People like Katara. He felt himself letting out a breath. Weeks out on sea with Bato had actually made him forget that waterbenders existed. It had always been there at the back of his mind but, with more important things to think about, it sort of disappeared as the days went on. 

But not now. This, all of this, was going to be Katara’s new home. 

It wasn’t as awful as he thought it would be.

The city itself was like something out of a fantasy novel. Houses made of snow arched around him between stretches of man made canals. The houses weren’t igloos either. Some of them were two, three stories tall, with sea glass windows or netted rope to help keep the cold out. The bridges had intricate patterns carved into their structures, formations of people and water dancing around and around. At the centre of it all was a tall palace, all made out of snow and ice too. 

There were people all over. Some of them stopped or ran to the bridges to catch a glimpse of Bato’s boat, while others went about their days. There were other boats along the canals too. Fishermen, craftsmen, tradesmen, there was even a water market down one of the canals, hollers of goods Sokka had never heard of being called to anyone who passed.

“Is this what the South’s like?” Sokka found himself asking.

Bato’s lips pursed. “Once,” he nodded, and left it at that.

Bato’s boat docked on a random port, Bato telling them they could just leave their stuff as he helped Gran Gran onto the snowy paths of the mainland. Dad kept a hand on Sokka’s shoulder as Gran Gran led them through the streets, and he was glad for it as he often found his attention more on what was around them than where he should be stepping. Not that dad wasn’t as bad. Or Bato for that matter. It turned out neither of them had ever set foot in the North Pole before now.

“We’ve had a few correspondences over the years but, they’ve never formally asked to meet with us yet. They want to keep out of the war,” Bato explained.

Dad nodded, muttering ‘cowards’ beneath his breath as Gran Gran took a sharp right. 

The palace loomed all too quickly, Sokka realising at the last second they were actually going in as Gran Gran didn’t stop. With a few muttered words to the guards Sokka quickly found himself unbathed and tired in a waiting room they certainly shouldn’t have allowed him to be in. He could feel his palms sweating for the first time since they’d hit the frigid waters, and it wasn’t because he was hot. “So how does this all work then? Is he like a king or…?” They were in a palace. It was a perfectly valid question to have.

Yet it took dad a moment before remembering, “I guess I never told you about the Four Nation’s politics.” He sat up straight, motioning Sokka to come that little bit closer, and straightened his collar like he was all of ten years old going to his first school dance. He did explain however. Telling Sokka all about the Earth King, the Firelord which got a bad word from Bato, the Air Nomads who had no need for Kings and Queens and worked with a council of elders of masters in each temple. The Water Tribes were sort of a mix of both. There was a council, especially in the South, but they all reported to a higher power which was the chief, or in the North’s case, the King. The North and South used to be one and the same, united under one ruler, but with the war, and the distance, the South established themselves as their own people. Meaning their presence here, while expected, was a little bit… touchy. 

Sokka’s feet were aching by the time a guard told them to follow him. Like before, Sokka just couldn’t stop staring. Unlike the outside, the inside wasn’t snow, it wasn’t that cold either. Instead, large sheets of near reflective ice made up the walls and floor. Skins of animals hung every now and then, and more often on the floors to stop any skidding. But here and there were other things. Vases made of clay. Paintings of people and places Sokka didn’t know about. Maps, a particularly large one too, hung to the right of the room they were shown into. He couldn’t help getting a closer look, the map Bato had back when he was taking them North mostly unmarked. This one however, had names and even intricate river patterns written on. There were outlying villages beyond the North Pole’s city it turned out. Some of them named, some of them not. All of them had marks next to them.

“Sokka,” he heard dad hiss, turning to see nearly seven pairs of eyes turned to him.

He scurried back to them, the three newcomers offering no other judgement but a raised brow from the back. “Chief Arnook,” Gran Gran introduced with a bow, Sokka following suit. He was the ‘king’ of the North Pole, and the one who Gran Gran had been told to introduce her family too as soon as they docked it turned out. Arnook wanted to suss out who, exactly, was coming in and out of his city in these troubling times, his words stern even if his voice was warm as he talked to them.

“Pakku vouched for you,” Arnook said, indicating the man onto his right. The man who hadn’t stopped looking at Gran Gran since they’d come in Sokka realised. “And I do trust his judgement. We will provide temporary lodgings while your family finds its feet.” Sokka heard Bato draw in a breath. So did Arnook if the pointed, “Just lodgings. As was agreed.”

Gran Gran grabbed onto Bato’s arms, “And we are very thankful for your generosity,” she bowed again, Sokka doing the same. 

Arnook left them to it, the man on his left following which just left them with Pakku. “The least he could do was hear me out,” Bato grumbled.

“I’m afraid the North isn’t so desperate to join the South just yet,” Pakku said, and bowed himself to Gran Gran. “It’s been too long Kanna.”

“I would have preferred it to be longer,” she grumbled.

“ _ Gran Gran.” _ This guy had vouched for them. The least she could do was, well, not that. 

Pakku didn’t seem to hear, or mind as he introduced himself to dad and Bato. “My school has a few empty beds that need to be put to good use. It’s not a proper house, I know, but it’s a start.”

Gran Gran opened her mouth, dad intercepting before she could ruin their chance for a bed for the night, “Honestly, anything at this point is helpful.”

Gran Gran grumbled as Pakku led them out. He was an okay tour guide. By that Sokka meant he pointed a few things of note out before spending the entire walk to his school trying to talk to Gran Gran. Well, not the entire time, he did ask Sokka a question or two, but after he found out Sokka wasn’t a bender the focus was back on Gran Gran. Like, seriously, what was with that? 

Their lodgings were three rooms side by side, two beds in each. Sokka tried his best to do that bow thingy as dad said thanks, Gran Gran shuffling herself into her room, the door firmly closing behind her. With just three of them left it was a bit of struggle finding their way back to Bato’s boat. Even more of a struggle as Sokka had to carry not only his bags but Gran Gran’s all the way back to Pakku’s, dad getting them lost twice when his awful sense of direction kicked in. 

He was beat by the time they got back. Leaving Gran Gran’s stuff by her door, he yanked every blanket and sleeping back he’d packed and tried to burrito himself into it. Job searching could start tomorrow, for now, Sokka just wanted to sleep. 

With no boat to wake him up Sokka was honestly surprised to hear the early morning call seep into his subconscious. It turned out, in a bender school, people woke up at the crack of dawn. 

Great.

At least breakfast was okay. A lot of dried meat and little kids pointing Sokka’s way but he dealt with it. He even brought some back for dad, he, somehow, able to sleep through the early call. 

Bato was the only other person awake when Sokka finished putting his boots on. He’d claimed the third room, and was currently dawdling by Sokka’s when he walked out. “I don’t think dad’s getting up until noon,” Sokka warned him. Then something occurred to him, “Are you leaving?” he was only supposed to bring them to the North Pole. Sokka supposed, especially with the rest of his people still fighting further South, he’d be leaving.

Yet, “Not for a week or so. I need my beauty rest as well you know.” he also still had that burn Sokka remembered.

“Okay.” so that meant Bato was gonna be hanging around. Something he was actually glad about. “Well, like I said, dad’s in bed until noon so, unless you wanna watch him sleep I wouldn’t mind help looking for a job?”

“Really?” Bato looked surprised at that.

“I mean, yeah.” he leaned in a little closer, “I don’t exactly know, you know, here.” Any of here.

Bato smothered down a smile a little too late. “Alright,” he closed Sokka’s door for him. “Let’s go job hunting.”

For the first few hours job hunting consisted of walking through the city trying to get their bearings. Sokka fell. A lot. It was somehow worse than being on the boat, the ice under his ass much less forgiving than wood. Bato tried not to find it funny, but after the fifth time he didn’t bother trying to hide it. Sokka didn’t mind, as his pride had long since left him.

Still, if only for Sokka’s poor bruised bones, Bato called a break a little after midday. Mainly by showing Sokka how to tell that it was, in fact, midday without a phone or watch. They were standing on one of the bridges, Sokka’s feet slipping as he tried to stay still as they watched the market from the day before sell all new wares. “So what did you do back home?” Bato asked.

“Er.” Good question. “I worked as a lifeguard for a while. Had a nice little set up at a gym near my uni. But I really wanted to get into engineering or mechanics or something.” He had been trying both classes last year and was still undecided which he liked better. “I don’t suppose there’s any jobs for any of that going huh?” He hadn’t seen a metal vehicle or boiler since, God, since he left home. He didn’t think the North Pole had a need for lifeguards either. Who in their right mind would swim in these waters? His foot slipped again, Sokka catching himself on the edge of the bridge. 

Bato was hiding a smile as Sokka righted himself. After asking about what a lifeguard was Bato suggested, “We could have a little ask at the steam rooms. It’s not the same, but I think you’d like it better than any other profession right now.” Which was a questionable thing to say to him.

“What’s a steam room?” Since Gran Gran had mentioned one yesterday too.

A steam room, as it turned out, were a few establishments located here and there around the North Pole and a means for people to get washed. Communal washing. It was a thing. Sure, people did it in their own homes too, but one step inside a steam room and Sokka could see for himself why people might just save themselves the frostbite and come here. Somehow they’d managed to stabilise firepits enough to heat up large batches of water. There were rooms much like a sauna back home for people to relax in, smaller pockets of water for children and a closed off area for women. The men's one was very much occupied when Bato dragged him in, and while before Sokka may have turned his nose up at the idea of animal innards for shampoo, smelling it compared to his own funk was like heaven.

Bato did most of the talking once they’d found the owners. Words like ‘charismatic’ and ‘first aid trained’ were thrown around which Sokka was honestly thankful of, and by the fifth steam room word about Sokka had gotten around enough Bato didn’t even need to open his mouth. 

“So this is the outsider?” A portly man by the name of Panuk asked. He looked Sokka over, “A little skinny,” he told Bato.

“He’s nineteen. All that food’s still going to growing.”

Panuk nodded. “My wife said she heard you used to pull people out of pools.”

“Er, sort of.” he didn’t think that could ever get miscommunicated but Sokka had a feeling it had been. “I mean, they were usually drowning.” and it had only been two times. 

“Think you could handle an unruly customer?” 

Now this part of the interview process Sokka was familiar with. “Definitely.” and he wasn’t lying. The amount of women and children who’d yelled at him because he was just doing his job was obscene. “Plus I’m familiar with pool health and safety which, I’m guessing won’t be much different here.”

Panuk looked him over again. “A trial run,” he told Bato. 

“A paid trial run,” Bato made sure.

Panuk’s lip curled but with a bit of cajoling he agreed, Sokka walking out freezing once more, but happy. “I have a job.” Not his dream job, but it was a job, and it meant he wouldn’t have to wear his coat for half the day.

“You might have a job,” Bato told him. “And only if he thinks you can handle yourself.” he clapped Sokka on the back. “Come on, we’ll wake your dad up and show you how to toss people out of a bath.”

Which, what?

Apparently Bato wasn’t lying. They didn’t have to wake dad up, but teaching Sokka how to toss someone out of a bath was an actual thing he was going to have to do. Especially when it came to the women’s baths. Even if this was another part of the world, or another world entirely, that didn’t mean there weren’t still assholes out there. “The Water Tribe also isn’t as… progressive in their women’s rights as we are,” dad told him quietly, which just let Sokka enter a new realm of horror as he thought of someone taking advantage of Katara.

He paid extra careful attention after that as Bato showed him the best way to grab someone. 

“It’s nice to see someone has a job,” Gran Gran congratulated him with later. Even if she did give dad the stink eye.

“I was tired,” dad whined. “I’m going tomorrow.”

“My poor grandson was tired too yet he managed to find a job.”

Dad pulled a face Sokka’s way he tried not to laugh at. “I’ll look tomorrow,” he promised.

Gran Gran huffed, but let the subject drop.

All in all, Sokka’s first real day in the North Pole was uneventful. Nothing life threatening happened. The people didn’t outright scorn him and, well, it wasn’t home but it wasn’t bad either. He felt sort of bad now the day was over that he’d been expecting something awful to happen. Like he thought they just weren’t people. Like all of this was just some weird form of punishment just waiting to crush him under its boot.

His second day started off with another early call. A good thing too as, after breakfast, Sokka quickly found himself lost in the winding streets of the North Pole trying to find the same steam baths he’d been to yesterday. He was late, he knew he was late by the time he rocked up, but either Panuk didn’t care, or simply wasn’t aware of the time since, when he found Sokka a few hours later, no comment was made to him about it. 

Work at the steam baths wasn’t all what he was dreading. In fact it was a lot like lifeguarding. If lifeguarding had a bit more customer service to it. He handed out towels, he made chit chat, he yelled at kids if they were running and generally made sure everyone was where they were supposed to be. He only handled the male clients, which he understood, and was rather thankful for. Although he did hear from one of his coworkers that there were joint communal baths somewhere nearer the palace. They were stricter, but his coworker promised the amount of breasts to be seen were worth keeping his hands above water for. 

Sokka himself found it both intriguing and disgusting. The disgust more towards his coworker for even thinking about jacking off in a communal bath in the first place.

It wasn’t bad work. Actually he learned a lot within the first week of being there. He knew more about the city, that was for sure. All those wrong turns were starting to look more familiar as the days went on, meaning Sokka was just that little bit more on time as his probation period was finished. He knew more about the people too. The ones who liked him even invited him to their establishments, especially after word of Sokka being an outsider reached them. Apparently it was a bit of a commodity. No one had seen an outsider in the North Pole before. They’d heard rumours from tradesmen who still went to Earth Kingdom about the few benders a year that rejoined their lands. But never seen one in person. Or heard from them since everything from his accent to the way he thought was scrutinised by these people. 

Whatever. He’d put up with it. His job was warm and any coin he could earn meant he was one step closer to not having to hear Gran Gran complain about Pakku every other breath.

Thankfully dad found a job his third day looking. Sokka sort of wondered why it took that long in the first place, but Bato quickly explained that men in the Poles quickly packed on the muscle as they grew up. Sokka was still young enough it wasn’t an issue, but dad? He’d been living his cushy lifestyle back home for most of his life. The kind of jobs he was asking about simply didn’t want to waste their time when there were other, already capable, men waiting for the same opportunity. But dad found one eventually. As one of the hunters actually, which had Sokka whining to him about it for a few hours. Sue him, he’d been brought up on endangered animal ads making him cry every supper time. But he knew it was necessary, and he did like the fact that dad got to bring home a portion of whatever they hunted. Especially considering they were being fed children’s portions at Pakku’s. Not necessarily a bad thing, these kids ate a lot, but after a week Sokka’s stomach was quickly expanding to realise it needed a lot more calories than it used to in order to keep running smoothly.

So much so he may have taken the portion of money Gran Gran said he could keep for himself and went scouring for something extra to eat.

Or, that had been the plan.

Quite frankly he found himself a bit distracted on his way out as he spied the last thing he’d been expecting in Pakku’s school for strictly boy waterbenders. A girl.

He cleared his throat, the girl jumping around and wow. Just “wow.” She was gorgeous. Totally in trouble, but gorgeous. Also glaring at him.

“Can I help you?” She asked.

“Er…” he’d been in the middle of doing something. “No but, I don’t think you’re supposed to be in here.” Right? Pakku hadn’t mentioned if he had a granddaughter or anything. Then again, the white hair was a common trait amongst them. Unless they sold hair dye in the North Pole. He still wasn’t too sure about what sort of things were actually sold here. 

“Well,” she shuffled a little closer towards the exit, “I don’t think you are either. Isn’t curfew sundown?”

For the kids it was but, “Oh, I’m not a waterbender.” A word that  _ still  _ sounded strange out of his mouth. “Are you?”

“No.” So there went the idea of her being in some secret classes Pakku might be holding. He watched those big blue eyes look him over, “You’re one of the outsiders, aren’t you?”

“Er, yeah,” he came that little bit closer, distant sounds hitting his ears. Someone was out of bed. He kept her in his eyeline as he walked the rest of the way to the little crack in the wall she’d been spying through. Two guys were on the other side, Sokka not able to make out much more than their shadows. They looked older than the five year olds he often had breakfast with however. “Who’re they?” She looked ready to bolt when he looked up.

“No one.”

No one? He could play this game. Katara was bad at lying too. “If they’re no one then why are you spying on them?”

“I’m not,” she folded her hands together, her coat covering them like a large scarf. “And you can’t prove that I was.”

He considered her a moment. “Okay.” 

“Okay,” she agreed. 

There was a bit of a stand off. Sokka thought she was waiting for him to move first so she could go back to spying, but, since she was blocking the exit, she ended up leaving before him. Peering through the crack again, he couldn’t really find anything of interest except whatever dance the others were doing tonight. Maybe that was it, he thought, turning back to his room, food forgotten. Maybe she really was a waterbender and had told him no to throw him off the scent.

Or maybe one of the other guys in there was her boyfriend and she was just waiting for him to finish up. Pakku would have yelled at her even if she wasn’t here to learn. He seemed to have a vendetta against training girls. Something, Sokka learned the next day, was shared with a lot of the bending schools. 

He hadn’t really noticed it before, but when dad said girls weren’t treated the same he thought that meant they, well, he didn’t know. He certainly didn’t expect them to be nothing more than housewives. Literally. Not one merchant he passed had a woman on the stand. Not one guard near the palace was a woman. The benders schools were boys only, the only place women could learn to hone their talents in the healing halls.

Dad had said Katara would go into healing when she got here. That meant he knew what these people were like. He also wasn’t going to fight it.

Oh God, Katara was going to hate it here.

That was all he could think about as he found himself wandering to where he found the girl last night. Peeking through the gap in the wall, he spied the boys from the night before, purely because one of them was using the same staff to go through his movements. He thought back to what he’d imagined the girl doing. How, maybe, she was learning waterbending in secret. He could probably do the same with Katara. Write a few things down, or see if he could record a voice memo on his ipod. An ipod that probably would never live long enough to be of use to Katara.

He heard rustling behind him, catching the tail of the girl’s hair as she ran back the way she came.

Hmmmm.

That next night, he waited until the girl was already spying before creeping up on her. She ran just as fast then as she had the night before, barking at him to keep his mouth shut as she did so. The night after was the same. The night after that too. Then, about a week later, three weeks for Sokka since he arrived at the North Pole, she didn’t immediately run as he sidled up next to her.

“What exactly are we looking for here?” Sokka asked, crouching so he could get in front of her dress. She grumbled, but didn’t kick him as he watched the boys do their usual patterns. 

“Nothing,” she said.

“Okay then.” He’d just figure it out himself. Thus became the normal.

She stayed through the entirety of the other boys' practices Sokka learned. She even watched them cool down, her eyes fixed until they walked out of sight. He still didn’t know what she was looking for, but Sokka had to say watching them gave him a good place to start off himself. After work, while dad was still out, or Gran Gran was gone house hunting, he’d use an empty room and go through the motions he saw the night before. Of course it meant he ended up on his ass most of the time, and he was sure he’d hurt his ankle with one of those kicks, but anything that could help Katara was worth it. 

“You really stink,” she told him the fourth week they were doing this. Sokka was moving that next day, which meant he’d almost not come at all. He was glad he had now, even if her only comment to him was one about his personal hygiene.

“Trust me. I know.” He could smell himself.

He felt her skirts tickle his neck. “You work in the bath’s don’t you? Why don’t you use them?”

“Never have the time.” Also, he hesitated a moment before telling her, “I don’t want them to think I’m taking liberties or something. And I thought if I went somewhere else he’d see it like I was betraying him or something.”

There was a sound behind him. When he looked up, in the dim light of the hall he could see her cheeks puffed out as another snort left her lips. She was laughing at him. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” she finally giggled. 

“Well…” maybe here apparently. He remembered in his first summer job when the manager strictly forbade him from going to another gym. They couldn’t afford people seeing their hardworking lifeguards betraying them to a gym that might, in fact, be better than their own. 

“Just take a bath,” she insisted. “Please. I’m pretty sure Panuk will bring you up on it if you don’t.”

“Huh.” okay, maybe he would. He did have an hour after work tomorrow before they closed too. Gran Gran wanted him to help move what little possessions they owned, but Bato was still around, he could do it. “So you know I work in the baths, and you know my boss’s name. If I didn’t know any better I’d think you were spying on me too.”

“Hardly,” she snorted. “And everyone knows where you work. Just like everyone knows your dad is very quickly becoming a high commodity in the dating market.”

“Eewww.” Who was saying this? Why was this even being spoken about. “Why would you tell me that?”

“Because it’s true. I spied him the other day myself. I’d give it another few months before people start swarming.” She looked so pleased with herself tormenting him like this. He supposed it was her own way of getting back at him for crashing her spying sessions. 

“And I suppose you’ll be included in that then,” he rolled his eyes. Yet she didn’t actually say no. In fact, when he looked back up at her she had a considering pout on her face. “Oh come on, no. He’s like old enough to be your dad. He is my dad.”

“Which means he’s been tested. You have a sister don’t you? Two children, single, very virile in-”

“No. No, no, no, no!” He couldn’t listen to this. It was bad enough mom wasn’t here. He did not want to listen to how many people might be eyeing his dad right now just waiting for him to enter heat like some sort of cat. Yeah, he always knew dating would be on the cards for both his parents at some point. But now? No. Just, no. They hadn’t even settled into a proper house yet.

She laughed, the sound tinkling along the halls before the pair of them quieted down. Sokka heard footsteps and so did the girl. She bolted, Sokka just standing when one of the ten year olds who liked to pull his wolftail rounded the corner. 

Sokka folded his arms. “Shouldn’t you be in bed?”

“Shouldn’t you?” the kid snapped back, the two of them realising they could both get into trouble if they didn’t actually do that and do it now. 

He took that bath. After work he asked in the nicest tone he could and nearly got thrown into one of the baths as a result. “Thank La kid, I was about ready to throw you in if you didn’t ask,” Panuk laughed, handing him a towel and telling him to take his time.

Sokka was more than thankful he’d packed his shampoo as he scrubbed his hair like it had never been scrubbed before as soon as he touched the water. The grime, the dirt that somehow existed in a land of snow, it all melted off in awful black puddles. He hadn’t realised just how dusty his toes had been until he felt the specks of dirt stop irritating the delicate skin between them. He’d never felt as happy as he did when he was finished, relaxing in the hot water, his skin the right shade all over and not a speck of dirt to be seen.

It was almost torture shoving his clothes on after that. But he did so, washing them as soon as he helped Gran Gran carry the last of the bags to their new home. It wasn’t much. In fact it was tiny. Dad had one of the waterbenders make it up for them for a good price, promising at some point they’d expand. For the time being it would do however. Even if it was cramped with four of them staying there.

Speaking of four people. Sokka didn’t know if he should be the one to bring up the ‘temporary respite’ Bato said he was taking before he was heading back. It wasn’t like Sokka minded having him there. Actually, it was kind of nice. Gran Gran liked the putter about her old neighbourhoods sometimes which meant there sometimes weren’t people to see him when he got home. Well, there wouldn’t be people if Bato wasn’t there. But it was, and he always liked to listen as Sokka complained about some of the awful people who came into the baths. But he knew Bato being there was temporary. It wasn’t like he was getting an audience with Arnook either. Five times he’d been to the palace since they’d got there, and five times Bato had been turned away. It was obvious the North wasn’t interested in joining the South, and since Gran Gran said herself his burn was almost all better, there was really no reason for him to still be there. It made Sokka sometimes wonder why he was. 

Other times, like tonight, he pushed it to the back of his mind. Namely because there would be no Pakku to wake him up tomorrow morning, which meant Sokka sacrificed a few hours on his ipod just to have an alarm. Bato helped him wake up the day after. Then, with a bit of persuasion from the mom next door, he had her hollering for him to get up as well as the rest of her kids. 

“Ugh,” he could feel his nose twisting as soon as he got through the door after work. “Gran Gran what is that?” It smelled like fish. Like a lot of fish and was seeping into his very soul to linger for a month if not more.

“Sea prune stew,” she answered, Sokka surprised to find dad and Bato both eagerly watching the pot.

“Sea what?”

“Sea prunes,” dad said. “A Southern Tribe delicacy.”

Oh God they were gonna make him try it. “Hmmm. Right. Okay. I might er, say Gran Gran, I might go grab something for afters if that’s okay?” Hopefully dad and Bato will have eaten the entire pot while he was out.

“Be back before dark,” she nodded, whacking Bato’s hand away. “It’s not done yet.”

Sokka had never ran as fast out of his own home in his life. 

He was a bit more familiar with where the markets were nearly, wow, nearly two months since being here. That meant about three since he’d left home. That meant another six before Katara was eighteen. His foot hit one of the bridges, Sokka quickly corrected his course as he thought about what home was like right now. He could still feel mom’s arms around him like it was just yesterday she was crying into his collar, begging him not to go. He could remember watching her car drive off, Katara’s arm sticking out the window as she waved and waved until they were out of sight. Mom hadn’t wanted to linger around the airport. Said she couldn’t stand it, and dad hadn’t wanted to upset either her or Katara more than they already were so he’d said it was okay. It hadn’t felt okay at the time. It still didn’t feel right. He was the one who’d left, not them. He should have been the one to turn the corner first. 

A glimmer of purple caught his eye. Looking through the crowd Sokka easily spotted the white hair of the girl back at Pakku’s. She was even more breathtaking in the daylight, her hair tied back with beads before he’d thought were black. Sokka cut his way through the crowd to her, the girl catching his eye just as he stepped up to the bridge. She turned away for a moment, Sokka unsure whether he heard her speak, before she was waiting, lips pursed, for him to join her.

“Look at you wandering around in daylight,” Sokka greeted. Her eyes were even bluer in the sun. 

“And you clean,” she smirked.

“Harsh,” he leaned his elbows onto the ledge. “If you’re looking for my dad I’m afraid to say he’s currently waiting for a bowl of sea prunes.”

She hesitantly set her elbows next to his. “You don’t like them?”

“Never tried them. Not planning on it either.” He’d caught a glimpse of one as it bobbed in Gran Gran’s stew. The words shrivelled up ball sack came to mind. He knocked the girl’s hip, “What are you up to then?”

“None of your business,” she said, not unkindly. “And you’re missing out. They look awful but they taste nice.”

“If you say so.” He pretended to look somewhere else, catching the moment her attention strayed away from him and back to the crowd below her. He followed her eyeline, coming to either an old lady telling off two boys or the man tying up his boat. Sokka wanted to go with the man, but, when his brain finally started working again, he remembered what had her so enamored back at Pakku’s. “Still spying then?” 

They were easy to spot now Sokka knew what to look for. The sun did a good job making people out of the shadows Sokka had come to know. The shorter of the two was the one trying to make peace with the old lady, and getting hit for his troubles. His head was covered in an Earth Kingdom bandana. The only reason Sokka knew that was because dad had shown him the sigil of the Earth Kingdom on their way over. The rest of the guy was dressed in Water Tribe gear. A long coat, thick boots and looked to be just younger than Katara. Sixteen, maybe seventeen. He still had a slither of baby fat on his cheeks. 

The second of the two Sokka couldn’t really see much of. He had Water Tribe gear on too, and was taller than his friend, but his hood was over his face leaving Sokka’s imagination to make up for what it couldn’t see. 

“Who are they?” he asked, and not for the first time.

However this was the first time he actually got an answer. Well, after she sighed, “You’re really not gonna let this drop are you?” 

“Nope.” He had no TV, no games console, his ipod was on half bar, he needed entertainment and if this was what the universe was providing then so be it. “Are they… exes?”

“No,” she said firmly. Then, “Their names are Lee and Bonzu,” Sokka felt his mouth twist the same way hers was at that last one. Oh yeah, this was getting good. “They’re studying waterbending at Master Pakku’s.” Obviously. “Or, Bonzy is. His friend came with him and supposedly they’re from the Southern Water tribe.”

“But you don’t think that,” Sokka gathered.

She clicked her tongue, “I want to. I’ve considered asking your friend to see if he recognises them. But from what I’ve heard, he hasn’t been home in years.” Which meant he probably wouldn’t be able to recognise any of the kids that might have once lived there. 

“Okay,” Sokka nodded. “So what’s suspicious about them? Apart from that awful name?” 

Her eyes flicked slyly to his, “Well that’s the thing. Lee isn’t a Southern Water Tribe name. He might be the result of a few… extracurricular activities in the Earth Kingdom. But, I don’t know. Something about them doesn’t add up.”

Interesting, very interesting. “Have you talked to them?” 

At that she laughed. Cutting herself off before it got too away from her. “Trust me, I think talking to you is pushing it.”

“...okay.”

“But you can,” she realised, a conniving gleam in her eyes. “You can talk to them. Yeah. You need to talk to them.” 

Which, he wasn’t against, but, “about what?” 

“Anything,” she decided. “Then tell me what they say. You’re an outsider, they won’t be as hesitant to mind their words around you, so after, you need to come and tell me exactly what they say. Word for word.”

“So a covert operation.” Okay, he liked the sound of that. It would fill his evenings a little more too. He was starting to get a little stir crazy with just three people to talk to. “Where would we meet?”

She thought on that for a few minutes before leaning in close to him. “There’s this place just outside the palace. It’s called the Spirit Oasis. No one goes in there and… well, you’re not really supposed to go in there but, I mean, I guess you wouldn’t know what it was you were looking for even if you did go in so,” she gave him a few brief directions, Sokka repeating them to himself until he was sure he had them memorised. “We’ll meet every Friday, just after noon.” 

From the sure way she said it Sokka just knew, “You know my schedule don’t you? You really have been spying on me.” 

She nudged him in the side. “Just get the information okay.”

“Okay.” he agreed. Then held a hand out, “I’m Sokka by the way, I don’t think I ever actually told you my name.” Not that she probably didn’t already know it. 

She hesitated a moment before nodding, “Yue.” Sokka realising after a moment they probably didn’t shake hands like they did back home. Or, ladies in the North Pole simply didn’t shake hands at all. Should he have bowed? A lot of people bowed here.

“Well Yue, I think I have to go home,” it was starting to get dark and Sokka was still afraid of Gran Gran enough to not cross her right now. “And you need to track Bonzu and pal. I think they got away from us while we were talking.” Sure enough, as they both looked over the side, the pair of boys were gone. 

Yue huffed a frustrated thing before calling goodbye and slinking off to join the crowd.

He slinked off back home, remembering, again, that he was supposed to be getting food just as he walked in the door and was immediately handed a bowl of sea prunes. He hated his attention span sometimes.

It was a little difficult being a covert spy when he had to work. He didn’t exactly know Bonzu and Lee’s schedule like Yue either, and since he didn’t know where she lived to go ask her where would be the best opportunity to approach these guys he was left with pure chance, and maybe a little bit of luck. Both of which Sokka knew hated his guts, hence him being here in the first place. 

He at least managed to sneak another bath before skulking around Pakku’s school on an evening. When Gran Gran asked where he went he just said he had made a friend. Which, was technically true, even if it wasn’t Yue he was meeting. 

Four days he hung out around Pakku’s before something happened. By that he meant Pakku himself caught Sokka skulking around and demanded to know what was going on. Also, if Gran Gran had sent him and if she had was it just to check on him? Could Sokka tell her Pakku was doing well and would love to talk privately at some point. Gran Gran wasn’t amused when he relayed this back to her. 

He feared, as Friday loomed, that he’d have nothing to tell Yue. He hadn’t even seen the boys since that day on the bridge, and had been a bit too afraid of being caught by Pakku again to chance looking through Yue’s spying hole on an evening. 

But then, for once, luck seemed to be on his side. It seemed it had finally decided to give him a break after all the horrible things it had done to him over the years and, as he was scrubbing a weeks worth of dirt off his body in preparation for his day off, he saw an Earth Kingdom bandana stride into Panuk’s steam baths. 

Common courtesy had him averting his eyes until he heard a splash but, yep, that was Bonzu. That was definitely Bonzu. He stood out like a sore thumb, not only because he was paler than the rest of the North Pole. The bandana could have been it too, but, really, if Sokka was pressed for words he’d have to say the guy as a whole just didn’t fit in. Even Sokka who’d been brought up outside the Four Nations didn’t stick out like this kid. 

He was a whirlwind of energy, seeming not to take the hint a few people were trying to give him as he attempted to talk to each and every person around him. It wasn’t like he was asking weird questions. In fact, inquiring about the weather was as boring as it got, but people didn’t really want to talk to other people when they were lounging. Sokka was different. Sokka was staff. Sokka was the one who would get them the best towel in this establishment if he liked them enough. So Sokka wasn’t wholly surprised when the kid ended up with a wide gap on all sides of him after only a few seconds in the water. 

Grabbing his toiletries, Sokka took his chance and slid his way over. “You know, if you’re looking for company I think a steam room isn’t the best place to be looking.”

The kid practically lit up, his face schooling itself after a moment. “I don’t know why not. When I was a kid people used to have huge parties in steam rooms.”

Or, maybe they were just more amenable talking to a cute kid than a teenager with an Earth Kingdom bandana on. “Well, whatever the case is, these people don’t usually like to be bothered when they’re having naked time.”

The kid guffawed. “Well you don’t seem to mind.”

“Eh,” he waved it off, “I work here. It’s sort of second nature to me to make chit chat even when I’m off duty.”

“Oh. That must be cool. My friend Zu-Lee, is always complaining about how cold it is where he works. I think he’d love working somewhere like here. Well, if he didn’t have to talk to people maybe. He’s not big on the chit chat,” Bonzu whispered.

Sokka nodded, biting a smile. “Well I’m Sokka anyway,” and he didn’t bother holding his hand out this time, which he counted as progress.

“A-Bonzu,” the kid introduced. “Yeah, that’s me. Bonzu. From the Southern Water Tribe.” 

“Oh that’s so cool, my dad’s from there,” at the kid's panicked look he clarified, “I’m not. But, my dad definitely is. He doesn’t even shiver when he goes to sleep at night anymore. Gran Gran said you never really forget how to live in arctic conditions, which is sort of a bummer cause I sort of hoped he’d suffer a little more with me.” It actually did suck to be told to keep his shivering down on a night time. No way was he huddling with Gran Gran either. The first time had been awkward enough, and he didn’t even want to try and crawl between dad and Bato. 

“I mean, it’s not that bad,” Bonzu said. “But I guess that’s only if you can regulate your body heat. Z-Lee, Lee’s always shivering. He er, i think he ripped his coat or something.” Sokka tried not to hear the ‘yeah, that’s a good excuse’ the kid muttered beneath his breath. 

In all honesty, Bonzu wasn’t hard to talk to. He skirted around a few things here and there, but he genuinely was just a nice guy. A nice guy who liked to follow animals around on his days off. “But there’s definitely something suspicious about them,” Sokka relayed, his feet still marvelling that there was grass beneath them. The spirit oasis had been a little trick to find. It was near the side of the palace, almost hidden away if someone didn’t know where to look. The inside wasn’t at all what Sokka had been expecting either. Grass, warm air, even the water that ran in pools and streams all around this place was a tolerable level. He may have just found his new favourite place. 

“I knew it,” Yue breathed.

“Yeah, like, Bonzu definitely hasn’t committed to his cover name properly. He kept slipping up his and Lee’s name. I’m pretty sure Lee’s starts with a Z.” It was the noise Bonzu always tried to make before remembering Lee. 

“Interesting, interesting,” she made him continue, the two of them dissecting Sokka’s conversation until they could be sure that 1, Bonzu and Lee were definitely undercover for some reason and 2, while Bonzu was a waterbender, there was no way he was from the South Pole. 

“I even asked him about some of the landmarks that would be there. Then I asked dad. Dad wasn’t too sure, but Gran Gran said they hadn’t had a community hall since she was a little girl.” which meant the kids info was out of date. “Do you think they’re dangerous?”

Yue’s face twisted. “I honestly don’t know. But people don’t lie for nothing right?”

“I guess.” Some lies were different than others however. Like if a lie meant keeping Katara at home instead of shipping her off alone to a place she’d never been before. “We’ll have to do more digging.”

“Agreed.”

More digging came when Bonzu decided to grace Sokka’s establishment that following Thursday. Sokka was working when the kid came in, one hand frantically waving Sokka’s way as he handed off another towel to a leaving guest. Unlike last time, Bonzu wasn’t alone. Lee had decided to make an appearance, at last, his hood drawn up tight over his head even this far into the baths. 

“Just the two of you?” Sokka made sure. Sure him, he was still jumpy after he’d spied Pakku lurking around yesterday. That guy just didn’t quit when it came to Gran Gran. 

“Yup. Z-Lee,” there it was again, Sokka actually despairing for this kid. “This is Sokka, my bath pal from last week.”

“Oh God,” was that what they were gonna call them? Bath pals? He didn’t think he liked that. He plastered on a smile anyway, “If you paid at the door the changing rooms are just down the hall, men’s baths to the right, ladies to the left. Please don’t make me chuck you out of the ladies though, there’s a partition for a reason.”

“Got it,” Bonzu called, already dragging Lee to their designated changing room. 

Sokka helped a few people out in the time between welcoming Bonzu and spying him lounging in the water. He drifted over as often as he could, catching snippets here and there of conversations that were mostly Lee telling Bonzu to stop bothering the other patrons. After an hour, he found himself face to face with Bonzu again, dressed and ready to head out, a pout on his face as he trotted over to Sokka.

“When do you usually go in?” Bonzu asked.

It took Sokka a moment to understand, “To bathe?”

Bonzu nodded.

“Er, about every other week.” He would have liked every week but Gran Gran had a strict washing day set aside for them and Sokka hated the idea of sleeping in dirty clothes after he’d washed. “Why?”

Bonzu shrugged, “It’s more fun with more people to talk to.” like they were at a social club. Then again, he had seen a few people do business in the steam baths. The difference there was that they’d come together, not just randomly started talking to strangers. “Plus you had that really nice smelling lotion stuff. I was telling Zu-” he got shoved in the side, “Lee about it and he wanted to smell it himself before we asked where you got it from.”

“Oh.” Huh. Okay. He could play this one of two ways. The first, send them off and see them next week and then after every other week because Sokka had a feeling this kid would actually wait to have a conversation with him. Or, “I could bring it next week if you like. I don’t mind you guys using it. Just pop in and tell me when you’re coming.” Sue him, he was bored, and if sacrificing his peppermint shampoo was what was going to get him information then so be it. Besides, dad had some he could borrow when his ran out. 

“Really? You’re the best.” 

He really was. He wished more people understood that. 

Regardless, he now had an in with the duo and didn’t hesitate to tell Yue about it that next day. “And Lee? What did he look like?” she pressed after he’d finished telling her about a scheduled time she could maybe visit him on his shift to see the boys walking out of the baths. 

“Er,” Sokka thought back. “He had his hood on a lot so, I didn’t really catch much. Dark hair though. I think he has a cut on his face or something too.” He remembered seeing a flash of red and wondering if he needed to find a first aid kit. If they had first aid kits in the North Pole. He may have to make his own. “Pale,” a little more colour than Bonzu, but not by much. His hair made him seem paler too, but side by side Bonzu was definitely the paler of the two. “Definitely muscled.” 

“How muscled?” 

It wasn’t like the muscle the Northerners packed on. Sokka remembered just looking at that back for a while wondering how much this guy benched for it to be that taut. “He looks like he does a lot of body weight exercises.”

“Interesting.”

“Is it?” 

“Sokka,” she levelled him a look, “I don’t know if you’ve noticed this but we don’t have much going on in the realm of entertainment.” No circuses or acrobats. The shows they put on every year were performed mostly by benders. Meaning, for a guy to be doing the kind of bodyweight exercises that would leave his arms looking like they could happily support his weight doing all sorts of flips, that meant they either hadn’t came straight from the South like they’d said, or they, again, weren’t from the South at all. 

“He looks like a gymnast,” Sokka agreed. Since boating muscle sort of sat under the skin more than athletic muscle. That wasn’t to say he hadn’t admired a good set of boating arms. He sort of wished his own were like that after a month on Bato’s boat, but he wasn’t sacrificing his warm job for anything right now so, “I’ll keep an eye on him. See if I can talk to him when he comes around next week.”

“You do that.” She started teasing him about his dad not long after that, specifically about the number of women Yue had heard tittering about him over the week.

“You are literally the worst,” Sokka said, bidding her goodbye.

She laughed as she shut the spirit door behind her, telling him to say hello to his family for her.

He did see it even if he said he didn’t to Yue. He’d noticed the number of people stopping to linger when his dad walked past. How, as the days wore on and his dad didn’t die out there hunting, he heard more people mention his name around the baths. Not just people his dad's age either. It turned out people just a little older than him thought his dad was potential mating material, which, wow, no, definitely not. Also why was it just dad that was getting all this attention. Sokka was here. Sokka was, slowly maybe, but he was packing on the muscle just as much as dad. Yeah, sure, maybe he had a cushy job, but that didn’t mean he didn’t do any heavy lifting. Sure, maybe he was still going through that weird stage in puberty when his body was still deciding if he was going to be scrawny or brawny for the rest of his life, but he liked to think he wasn’t completely unattractive. Yet he wasn’t being given subtle hints from Gran Gran when he got home about so and so looking for a partner. 

It wasn’t fair. It also had him pouting for most of the week. 

He was still pouting when a familiar green bandana appeared in his vision on a Wednesday of all days. Bonzu didn’t even try and pretend he wasn’t looking for Sokka, ducking under a very naked arm to skid the last few steps to Sokka’s side. “So Lee said you were probably just being nice but if you weren’t, do you think we could come by on Sunday? Or is that too soon? You didn’t take a bath last week which means that this week should be when you have it, only, well, we kind of have a waterbending test. Or, I do, and I know you probably have a schedule and stuff but…” God this kid could ramble. Sokka thought he was bad, and he was, but wow. 

“Er, sure.” He interrupted just because he thought Bonzu might be here all day if he didn’t. “That’s fine. I mean, I’m working, but, yeah, if you come about an hour before closing then I don’t mind pushing bath day back.” Yue would just have to put up with it. It wasn’t like she smelled like roses every day of the week either. Probably. She looked like the kind of girl who’d sweat roses. 

“Really?” Like the concept of Sokka saying yes really was that foreign. “Great. Oh,” he dug around in his coat for a second, coming up with a slip of what Sokka told himself was paper, even if there wasn’t a tree to be found for miles, and handing it Sokka’s way. “It’s the time of my waterbending test if you want to come. Pakku likes an audience when he beats his students up.”

Sokka believed that. “I’ll give it a look.” 

He got another blinding grin, someone calling from the front whether Bonzu had paid yet. “I guess that means I gotta go,” Bonzu waved, skipping his way out of the baths. 

He handed the slip of paper over to Yue as soon as he ran into the oasis. “It’s,” he tried to catch his breath, “It’s going on now.” Okay, no more running in fifteen layers for him. “I checked. The little kids are still finishing up. But,” yeah, his point had been made, and with only a little hesitance, Yue took his hand, the two of them tearing through the streets of the North Pole until they got to Pakku’s gates. 

There were other people inside when they got there. Parents. Non benders. People that didn’t make Sokka feel like he was disturbing something private as he found an empty part of the ice to stand on. He felt eyes on him, a few people even bending over to get a look at him. He supposed people just didn’t like latecomers. 

Sokka tried not to look at them, focusing instead on the benders in front of him. Benders who were way more experienced than his little sister and half her age. Katara really was going to hate it here. His sister wasn’t the most kid friendly person on the planet. She hadn’t had a little sibling to look after growing up, and since mom and dad were only children, the only experience she had was when they were out in public. Being put in a room with these kids was gonna kill her.

He gud his hands into his pockets, like before trying to remember as much as he could so he could try it out at home. Dad was letting him write a letter home soon as well. He could probably write a few instructions down for Katara to practice before she got here. Anything to have her bumped up a few age groups. 

The age groups went up from ten to about mid teens, and it was here that Bonzu made an appearance. He was good. All that late night practicing was paying off, Sokka unable to see anything wrong with his form as he went through his katas. Pakku still beat him into the dirt however. Or, ice he supposed. Bonzu took it in good spirit anyway, accepting the criticism Pakku gave every one of his students before retreating to where a lone figure was sitting on the stairs.

Sokka nudged Yue’s side, the two of them slipping through proud parents and supportive siblings alike until he could hear the gravelly voice of Lee handing out praise. “Your friend is here.”

Bonzu turned, “Sokka!” he darted forward, Lee grabbing the back of his coat before he got too close. Bonzu quickly calmed down to bouncing on his toes. “You came.”

“I did. You were great out there.” 

“Meh,” he waved off, “I was okay. But Pakku’s happy with me, and that’s all I can really ask for.” Sokka heard Lee scoff. Bonzu ignored it, instead turning his attention to, “You brought a friend?”

“Oh, yeah,” he nudged Yue that little bit in front of him, “This is Yue. I told her I got invited to this thing and she insisted she had to come. Very big fan.”

“Grea-”

“Wait,” Lee came that little bit forward, Sokka catching a glimpse of red beneath that hood before, “Princess Yue?”

“Hah!” Sokka barked, “As if…” he caught Yue’s face, “Seriously?” She was a princess? He’d been hanging out with a Princess? He’d been hanging out with a princess. Oh God he’d been hanging out with a  _ princess. _ She’d told him he smelled. He hadn’t bathed in two weeks. How did he still have his head? How was she even here? Didn’t princesses have like-

“Princess Yue,” called behind them, Pakku sauntering up, the poor teen he’d just destroyed whimpering back to his place with his friends. “I thought I spied you,” he bowed to her. “I am honoured to have you here of course, but I can’t help but notice your lack of guards.”

“I’m sure they’re around here somewhere,” Yue said, innocence high on her face as she glanced around like guards would magically appear. 

Pakku hummed, that hum turning into a patient smile as he lay eyes on Sokka. “No,” Sokka put out there before Pakku could even ask, “I am not telling Gran Gran I saw you today. For God’s sake you know where we live. Just knock on the door or slip her a letter or something.”

The smile dropped, Pakku honest to God pouting his way back to his students. Sokka pitied the poor things. Especially after he watched one become an icicle after not even a second of sparring.

He turned back to Bonzu. “What other tests do you have today then?” 

Bonzu lit up, telling Sokka all about the group performance he would be putting on tonight before dinner. “It’s sort of an all day thing. But Lee’s free if you guys wanna hang out.”

God this kid did not understand social cues did he? Even Sokka could see Lee wanted nothing to do with Sokka or Yue, edging as far as he could get from the latter. Not that it meant a lot, Sokka was slowly edging away from Yue too, counting the number of days he’d been unbathed in his head. He needed to wash his coat too. Maybe grovel for all those conversations they’d had. He didn’t think he’d been very respectful, or, well, how people were supposed to treat a princess. 

“That sounds fun,” Yue said. “I would be honoured to spend the day with you Lee. Perhaps you can tell me what your old home was like. Sokka says you’re from the South Pole.”

Forgetting the fact Yue was a princess that was handled amazingly. Even if Sokka could see the panic starting to set into Lee’s shoulders, he knew Yue had basically trapped him in a web of politeness. It would be suspicious to say no. To not want to talk about home when, in all honesty, if he was from the South Pole, he probably would be dying to talk about it with someone. Dad and Bato were whenever Sokka came home. It seemed it was a South Pole thing to be extremely attached to every snow drift and igloo that made up their war torn home. 

So Sokka wasn’t all that surprised when Lee finally muttered a, “Fine.” sitting himself back on the stairs behind him. 

Bonzu looked around them like he couldn’t believe this was actually happening. His grin was near blinding as he started filling the idle silence before he went back to training with talk of anything and everything that came to head. Everything too. Bonzu saw a seal turtle the other day, and spent a good ten minutes explaining the intricate markings and how it gave the biggest yawn he’d heard from a seal turtle yet. 

Sokka was actually sad to see him go, wishing more than anything he had the ability to talk like that. He wasn’t the only one, Yue and him both perching themselves on the stair below Lee. It would be a good half hour before the silence between them broke. Surprising, since Yue had been the one who’d wanted to talk to them in the first place. He thought she’d be teeming with pre prepared questions. Maybe she was just having a hard time deciding which one to ask first. 

Either way, it was a seventeen year old student flying through the air into a snow drift that got Lee, behind them, to give a chuckle, the rest of them following suit. “Is he okay?” Sokka asked. As funny as it was that was a large fall. Like, could the human body handle that?

“He’s fine,” Lee said. “One of the first things they learn is how to take a hit. Especially with Pakku.”

Sokka snorted, “Yeah, he doesn’t seem like the gentle type.”

“Apparently he used to be,” Yue chimed in. “Years ago mind. Dad said he heard rumours about a failed romance.”

“Oh really?” Okay, if what was getting them talking was gossipping about Pakku he was alright with that. More than alright as Yue gave every little tidbit of information she’d gleaned over the years to them. Apparently, yes Sokka, it was a woman, and they were in love. “Gross.”

“Stop it,” she laughed, going back to her story. Apparently they were engaged to be married. Everything was going well, and then, in the middle of the night, his fiance just vanished. “Dad thinks the spirits took her.”

“Spirits?” he snorted. Then caught Yue’s face. “Wait, you guys believe in spirits?” Like ghosts and stuff? It wasn’t completely strange he supposed. He knew a few people probably did where Sokka lived, but they were usually on morning talk shows quietly being made fun of. But maybe that’s what people wanted. What the government wanted. Sort of another way to separate Sokka’s world from this one. 

Urgh, he was sort of feeling bad for laughing along with those presenters now. Yue didn’t look crazy. Lee didn’t sound it either as he warned, “You might not want to laugh at spirits. Especially not here.” Which brought a whole new realm of questions. Questions he never got to ask as Lee went on, “Besides, it’s obvious it wasn’t spirits.”

Yue crooked a brow, “How so?”

“You saw the way he looked at…”

Wow, “Sokka.” Although he supposed they’d just started talking to each other. So, Lee was forgiven this time. “And what about it? I wasn’t engaged to him. At least, I don’t think I was. Was I?” Some sort of secret engagement as a baby. Or a mind wipe.

Yue giggled as Lee said, “No idiot. You said you weren’t delivering a message to your Gran Gran right? I’m sure she’s around Pakku’s age. So, if we actually thought about this for a moment-”

“No.” Just no. Come on Gran Gran he thought she had standards. Pakku? The guy currently bullying children? The guy who Yue had to sneak past just to spy on his students because girls were, apparently, the worst? No. Absolutely no way. Although that would explain why she ran to the South Pole. Then something else occurred to him. “Oh this is so unfair.”

“How?” Yue laughed. “Oh and he asked you to deliver a message. How sweet. He probably wants to reconcile.”

“Do not,” he warned. “And it’s unfair because apparently everyone in my family has game but me.” Gran Gran had a suitor. Dad had prospects. Where were his love interests? Where was his future for love in the North Pole. “Oh there’s gonna be a double wedding. I’m not gonna have a date. This is awful.”

“I think you’re getting a bit ahead of yourself,” Lee snorted.

Maybe. Gran Gran didn’t want to talk to Pakku after all. But she’d cave. Sokka had already seen the cracks. It would only be a matter of time until he was surrounded by lovey dovey couples. “I’m gonna have to soundproof my room.” Which led to more laughing. 

It was a little easier after that to get Lee talking. It turned out, like any other teenage boy, he enjoyed tormenting the life out of another, and Sokka had always been an easy target. When it came to questions, Yue kept them relatively easy. Questions like what he thought of the Earth Kingdom. Were the seas okay getting over here? Questions that Sokka could answer too.

“Did you see those dolphin fish things? I thought I was hallucinating when dad told me to come see them.” Still wasn’t too sure it hadn’t been a fever dream.

“You mean the flying dolphin fish?” Lee checked. “Yeah, we saw some. They’re kind of hard to miss.”

“What sort of animals do they have in the South Pole then?” he urgently tried to remember what Gran Gran had told him.

Lee, however, didn’t even hesitate before saying, “Otter penguins,” in a tone that spoke of pure exhaustion. “Bonzu insisted we penguin sled before we left.”

“Otter penguins?” Gran Gran had mentioned them. She hadn’t said you could sled on them. Just how big were these things? Wasn’t it like animal cruelty or something to ride a penguin? 

“And tiger seals,” Lee nodded. “I thought you were from the South Pole. Shouldn’t you know that?”

“My dad is,” Sokka corrected. “And Gran Gran. I come from,” he pointed behind him, “You know,  _ outside _ .”

“That’s why he smells weird,” Yue said.

“I do not!”

Her face twisted, Lee letting out a small chuckle. “There is a weird hint of something about you,” traitor.

“See?” she turned to Lee, “He told me they use weird plastic bottles to keep their oils in too. They don’t smell natural.”

“Plastic?” Which turned to Sokka leading them to his home with promises to come back for Bonzu’s big display tonight. 

Wherever Yue’s guards were they were doing a good job of blending in or just completely forgetting about her at all since Sokka didn’t see anyone trailing after them. He did see a lot of people bowing, like actually bowing and not just leaning to look behind him like he’d thought they were. It kind of made things sink in for him that he was in the presence of actual royalty.

More so when he got home and Gran Gran outright whacked Sokka in the stomach until he was bowing properly to their esteemed guest. “Ow Gran Gran!” He thought mom’s mom was bad. At least she didn’t pack a punch. God he hoped Pakku wore protective gear the next time he came over. “And it’s fine. If Yue didn’t want me bowing to her before she probably doesn’t want it now.” He guessed since she hadn’t ordered him to be rehabilitated yet. “And this is Lee. We’re just gonna hang out for a while.” So, hint hint, please don’t embarrass him. 

She grumbled and fussed, and Yue ended up with the warmest pelt in the house to sit on, but she didn’t, actually, embarrass him. Instead she went to bother Bato in the next room, Sokka spying them poking their heads around the corner more than once as Sokka rifled through his bags to find his stuff.

“Okay, so, shampoo,” Sokka handed off, Lee hesitating a moment before pushing his hood down to smell the bottle Yue thrust under his nose and wow- God that was a burn. That was a bad burn. It stretched from his eye all the way across to his ear, some of that even missing. It was definitely striking, but that wasn’t what had Sokka looking around every other rifle. Lee… he was handsome. His hair was cut in a style Sokka had seen some other guys wearing around here. Shaved in parts and tied up on top with a blue ribbon. There were parts that were shorter than the rest, like whoever cut it hadn’t checked to see if it was even or not, meaning strands hung slightly in his eyes. Also wow, Sokka didn’t think he’d ever seen eyes like that. They were almost yellow gold, even the one half closed shining brightly. 

He went back to rifling, coming up with his laptop, which was effectively useless, his ipod he’d used some of his laptop juice to charge, and some of his old clothes from home. Despite all this being a means to keep talking to Lee, Yue looked just as fascinated as she held up one of his old uni hoodies to her chest. “It’s so thin.”

“It’s not that cold where I live. Or, used to live.” Even in winter it wasn’t as cold as it was every day here. 

They both liked his stuffed wolf. Lee asked why it was so out of proportion as Yue, after making sure this wasn’t an actual stuffed wolf cub and just something made out of fluffy fabric, did her best to try and steal it. 

He only hesitated a little bit before letting them listen to his ipod. They couldn’t exactly judge him on his song choices like Katara would since, well, they’d never even heard of any of the artists. “It’s different,” Yue landed on. 

“It’s clunky,” Lee said. So, maybe he wasn’t as free from ridicule as he thought. “But I guess it’s nice you can listen to it whenever you want.”

Yeah, it was. “So what sort of music do you guys have here?”

Lee’s answer was a lot of strings and horns, Yue’s no different, but the pair of them had vastly different sounds to them. Lee didn’t seem to care that his music taste could be fact checked since he was quickly arguing with Yue about whether ballads or songs you could dance to were better. Lee liked things that told a story, Yue liked not having to talk to people, and every song they told Sokka about was confusing. 

“That settles it then,” Yue announced, “Both of you are coming to the palace on Sunday. I’ll ask dad to let our usual band practice in one of the receiving halls and we’ll see which Sokka likes better.”

“Sounds good,” Lee said, “But Bonzu will dance through each and every one of those songs so I hope you’re prepared for that.”

Did neither of them not wonder if the band would be okay with this? 

Regardless, Yue had her mind set on it, and after asking Gran Gran herself if it was actually okay that Sokka stayed at the palace Sunday night, the three of them set off. “So I’m staying there?”

“It saves you walking home,” Yue agreed. “Plus, I haven’t had any friends stay over since I was a child. It’ll be fun.”

Yeah, sure. Except, “You realise you’re asking three boys around right?” Even at home if Katara came back saying three guys would be staying over dad would be having some words.

“He has a point,” Lee cut in. “This is the North Pole.”

Yue rolled her eyes, “We’ll have a chaperone. And I’m sure dad’ll post some guards to make sure you stay in your room but come on, please?” And, well, Sokka couldn’t say not to that face. Plus, Gran Gran might actually kill him if he blew off the Princess of the North Pole.

Bonzu’s performance, when they got back, was impressive. Sokka didn’t know if it was just because he’d never seen people do  _ that _ before, of if the skill level of the kids doing their group performance was just that good. Either way, he had something positive to say to Bonzu when the kid ran over. Lee wasn’t as unsupportive as Sokka thought he was either. “Your stances are much better,” Lee said. “Still a little light, but, better.”

Bonzu practically beamed. 

Even more so when he learned about the sleepover on Sunday. “Great! We can go by the baths first and pick Sokka up then meet you.” Which meant Sokka’s Sunday was well and truly planned out. He found he didn’t mind it as much as he thought he would.

It felt a little normal even, come Sunday to be waiting around for hours and hours holding onto toiletries for… maybe not friends, but people that he was friendly with. It was rather like his first few weeks at uni. Everyone was new, everyone was tip toeing around each other but ready for new experiences. Nervous for sure, but exciting at the same time.

Bonzu and Lee came near the end of Sokka’s shift. Enough so Sokka only kept them waiting for ten minutes before he was sliding his ‘weird smelling’ plastic shampoo bottle over and ignoring the fact that they were very much naked right now. That Lee was very much naked in particular because, wow. Muscles. With his hair down too, and face actually uncovered, he didn’t look that rough around the edges either. Not that Sokka thought he was just, well, Lee gave off a vibe that definitely made people want to keep three steps away from him. It was a good job Sokka’s instincts had never listened to things like that before. Nor did they now as he waved his shampoo bottle under Lee’s steadily moving nose.

“Absolutely not,” Lee insisted. 

“It’s peppermint.” A natural smelling plant.

“I’ve smelled peppermint and that is not that.”

He didn’t give in, but Bonzu did, the kid turning to the wall to wash his hair before sticking his bandana back on. Sokka tried not to feel a little insulted as Lee purposefully shielded Bonzu from view. He wasn’t a perv. But then, Sokka supposed they were in a public setting and, well, Lee seemed a little protective of Bonzu when he wasn’t naked and vulnerable too. Like when he’d slipped on his way up the stairs after his performance. Sokka hadn’t seen a guy run as fast as Lee had to make sure Bonzu was alright. It was kind of sweet.

Dressed, smelling fresh and with a few coins in his bag, the three of them walked the winding streets to the palace. Sokka still wasn’t sure they’d actually be allowed in. There was no way Arnook would let Yue have guy friends, and just guy friends, over. Yet when they got to the side entrance Yue had told them to go when they’d left her, the guards happily gave them directions to the receiving hall. 

It was a little harder to keep his eyes off the tapestries and pelts without his dad hurrying him along. Lee and Bonzu didn’t tell him to shift either, the three of them dawdling far longer than they should have until Yue found them.

“Do you want a tour before we go dancing?” she asked.

“No that’s-”

“Yes!” Bonzu interrupted, Lee shooting him a dark look before giving up. “So much is different to how I remember.”

Yue frowned, glancing at the vase Bonzu had been ogling, “Really? I think that’s been there since before I was born.”

“That’s probably because we came through a different entrance,” Lee said, Sokka hearing the way his teeth ground, his words that little bit pointed until Bonzu’s cheeks coloured.

“Right. Yeah. We came through the front right?”

Yue shot Sokka a look, meaning she’d caught that too. She didn’t comment on it however, merely leading them to what she thought were interesting parts of the palace. The rooms with good views were her favourites, Sokka knew that after the third room she took them to with nothing more than a few instruments she said she sort of played sat had a window, too, that looked out onto the slowly glowing lights of the North Pole. Thankfully their room was on the tour, meaning Sokka could dump his stuff without having to carry it around the rest of the night. He could also give Yue his gift from Gran Gran. “You know, as thanks for letting a poor peasant like myself bask in your presence for the night.”

Yue laughed, taking the bowl of stew Gran Gran hadn’t even let dad sniff with a promise to write a note back.

The receiving hall, when they got to it, was huge. Like literally huge. It looked like one of those ballrooms Sokka sometimes saw in period pieces. Or, were they even period pieces if the entire history of Sokka’s land was a lie? Either way, it was grand, and echoey and, again, made entirely of ice. Gritty ice, meaning Sokka’s feet didn’t slip as he walked along the large space. There was a band on one end, their conductor, or whoever was in charge, staring eagerly Yue’s way. 

“A ballad or a dance first?” Yue asked, head tilted Lee’s way.

“Host’s choice.”

“Hmm.” she stroked her chin before wandering off, the band playing something slow to start off with.

It was nice music. Again, something he would have expected in a fantasy drama or a period piece. A lot of strings, a lot of sad melodies. Not that Bonzu seemed to care. Like Lee had warned, at the first note of music Bonzu was gliding all over the place, and soon enough dragged Yue into it too. They didn’t match the pace of the song at all, Yue’s laugh tinkling loudly off the ballroom edges as she tried to keep up with Bonzu’s fast moving feet. 

“What’s this one then?” Sokka asked, perching himself next to Lee.

Lee’s good eye squinted for a second, “I’m not sure. I don’t think I’ve heard this one.”

“I thought you liked ballads.”

“I do,” Lee listened to the tune a few seconds more. “There’re different ones in different Nations. They might know some of the more popular ones, but I don’t know this one. It’s nice though.” It was nice. It was good to hear something that wasn’t just people talking too. Something that made his brain instantly relax.

Until the next song that was. The strings were a little more upbeat, a drum being added into the mix and Yue and Bonzu both bowing to each other before assuming a beginners stance and starting some elaborate dance. “Do you know how to do that?” Again, it looked like something from a period piece. That being that it was a dance that would have widely circulated and be known off by heart for elaborate balls and such. Yes, he did have a bit of a thing for period dramas. He blamed Katara, she always used to have them on while he was doing his homework, and since he was supposed to be concentrating on that, mom and dad never let him change the channel. 

“No,” Lee snorted, and from the looks of things he didn’t know how Bonzu knew it either. There were jumps and twirls and so many steps Sokka was surprised they remembered them all in sync. But they did, and they knew the one after too. The one after that as well. 

“How do they dance where you’re from then?” Sokka asked. “Back home it’s less… finesse and more grinding.”

He could have sworn Lee’s cheeks coloured slightly. “Er, we don’t. I mean, there’s not a lot of dancing back home. My mom taught me some but, dad wasn’t a big fan.”

“That sucks.” Yeah, mom and dad didn’t exactly teach him how to dance, but they didn’t frown upon it. They just made fun of him when he was trying his moves out in the living room. “So you know how to dance though?”

“... a little,” Lee muttered.

“Like that?” Sokka made sure, pointing to where Bonzu was, somehow, swinging Yue around in an elegant circle.

“Not like that. But, not, not like that.”

Sokka thought about it for a while. Bonzu and Yue were right there. Bonzu probably wouldn’t laugh at him, but Sokka didn’t know him well enough to trust him not to drop him. Or go easy on him. The pure energy on that kid was far too much for Sokka’s learning level. So, “Could you teach me some?”

“I just said I don’t know how to do that,” Lee grumped.

“I know. And I’m not asking to learn that.” He was sure Bato would know how to do the fast stuff. “Just, beginner stuff. I don’t- there’s probably like a nightlife around here I’ve not discovered yet and I don’t want to look stupid. Just a few steps? I mean, we’re friends now right?” He hoped so since they were all sharing a room together tonight. That was beginner friends criteria if Sokka had ever seen it. So was helping someone else out when someone was new in town and didn’t want to be stared at for his weird dance moves. It was one thing to do it back home and be laughed at. No one could dance properly back home. But here? With people able to do  _ that _ and for it to actually be a thing that people expected when dances came around? He couldn’t spend parties sitting with Gran Gran, he just couldn’t. He told Lee so as well. 

So much so that he finally wore Lee down enough that the two of them retreated to the back of the ballroom. “Don’t laugh,” Lee warned, eyes threatening danger if Sokka did.

“I won’t.”

Lee glanced back to where Yue and Bonzu were starting a whole new set of moves, then moved himself into a first position. It wasn’t too complicated what Lee knew. Not by a long shot. But the stances were unusual to Sokka’s body, and remembering the sequences between twirls and dips and even, at one point, having to duck beneath Lee’s spinning leg, meant Sokka was quickly out of breath and quickly realising that he was way out of his depth here. Lee was patient however, mainly because he looked like he wanted nothing more than to crawl back to his corner of the ballroom and do nothing. So any opportunity to not be dancing himself, whether it be to adjust Sokka’s stance, or walk him through the sequence again, he did it without complaint. 

It was nice, and while he knew he didn’t look elegant, he certainly didn’t feel it either, he didn’t feel so out of place. 

He noticed two things around the hour and a half mark of dancing. The first was that they didn’t really touch a lot in dancing. It wasn’t just what Lee was showing him either. Whenever Sokka glanced over to Bonzu and Yue, save the occasional lifts, there was barely any contact. Their palms would reach the same height, but remain a slither apart. They mirrored each other, but never wrapped their arms around their partner. There was no hands on hips, hands on shoulders deal. It was almost like they were fighting. Or bending, he realised. It was like they were bending, and if Sokka looked and imagined water moving between them he could see where Bonzu arched he was making space for an element that wasn’t there. 

The second thing Sokka realised was that Lee didn’t know any Water Tribe moves whatsoever. Bonzu did, as was obvious, but Lee’s style of dancing was different. The Water Tribes moved, not clunkily, but heavy. Their feet were firm when they touched the ground, again, like bending, they flowed with their upper bodies, more than their lower whereas Lee. Lee moved like liquid. His feet barely made a sound when they touched the ground. He used his legs more too, spinning low and high, Sokka often jumping over it, as was the dance. It was a little more… sensual, he’d say than the Water Tribe dances. Which was probably why Sokka felt like an idiot. He didn’t do sensual. He wasn’t smooth, he was funny, which meant when he was told to move his hips more he honestly had to be grabbed and shown what to do. 

Lee’s hands were super warm. It didn’t help that Sokka knew what he looked like without all those heavy clothes, and he wasn’t even thinking naked but now the thought was in Sokka’s head and, okay, hip grabbing may not have been Lee’s best idea. Especially since Sokka still didn’t understand what Lee meant.

Eventually Lee gave up, the two of them gravitating back to their seat on the floor when Sokka’s feet actually ached too much to keep going. Lee disappeared after a few minutes, coming back to hang his head against the ice. The music changed from fast to slow not long after, Sokka keeping quiet about the low hums he could hear from Lee’s throat.

“What’s this one about?” Sokka asked as Lee continued to hum into the next song.

“Dragons,” Lee answered after a moment. “It’s about the last dragon. Or, what people thought was the last dragon. It sat in its cave day after day, hiding from the world, watching it go by. It watched cities rise and fall and life go on with no hope of herself being able to join them. Then a Fire Soldier came and there’s a battle… I think they sing it differently in the Fire Nation,” it sounded like he knew they sang it differently in the Fire Nation. “But that’s how mom sang it. It’s a sad ending.”

The next one was about the seasons. The one after about two lovers who were separated by their families. They were never happy, but then, ballads weren’t always about love Sokka was coming to realise. A ballad was a story. Any story, and the popular ones, just like at home, were the ones with tragic endings.

He’d drifted closer over the songs. Sokka that was. Lee was warm. Even with their coats on Sokka could feel Lee’s heat like a furnace, and quickly found himself pressed up against Lee’s arm. Sue him, it was cold sitting on the floor doing nothing. He could also hear Lee better when he was closer. Either way, he was close enough to feel Lee tensing up as the song changed again. 

“What’s this one about?” Sokka asked, as he always did when the song changed. He’d learned if he didn’t, Lee wouldn’t tell him. Sokka didn’t know if it was just because he didn’t want to be talking, or if he wasn’t sure what he had to say was interesting.

Either way he asked, and after a few more notes Lee breathed out, “The fall of Ba Sing Se.”

“Oh?” He’d heard that name in passing. It was a large Earth Kingdom city that was usually on all the maps.

“There was a siege. Six hundred and ten days. There was an attack on one of the Fire Generals. He fell in battle. Or so they thought. The Earth Kingdom brought his body into the city to hold hostage. The plan was to return him to the Crown Prince on the understanding that the Fire Nation would leave. What they didn’t know was that the General had survived the initial attack. That there had been a plan concocted afterwards to use it to their advantage. The General feigned death where the Earth Kingdom soldiers could find him, and since news had gotten out that the General was dead, they didn’t think to skewer the body.” Well that certainly wasn’t good. “They’d taken the General into the heart of the palace. In the cover of night, the General slipped away through the halls. By morning, the Earth King surrendered Ba Sing Se, the Fire Nation being welcomed into the city.”

“That’s… smart,” awful, but smart. No one would suspect a dead man rising. 

“The refrain is about the bodies that were hung from the windows after the Fire Nation took hold. The King, his family, some nobles, some guards, anyone who held political importance was dangled from the windows for weeks. After they’d been burned that was.”

“Burned?”

“Not enough to incinerate the bodies. The Crown Prince was making a statement after all. All hail the Fire Nation who purged Ba Sing Se of its oppressors in literal fire and death.”

He felt himself swallowing. In stories, it sounded impressive. It sounded awful, but it was interesting to read about blood and gore. But sitting there, knowing that his sister would be living in a land where people were burned and hung outside their windows was far more terrifying than impressive. “I hope they never come here.”

“Me too,” Lee whispered.

He was tempted, in the silence that followed, to ask. It was obvious something had happened, and Sokka had a feeling it might be to do with the Fire Nation, but the gap to ask, the want to know, dimmed as the minutes stretched. Sokka wanted to be Lee’s friend, not make him uncomfortable, and if he hid his face, be it cold or something else, Sokka didn’t want to break whatever was tentatively forming between them. Even if half of it was built on surveillance.

A few more songs were performed before a servant poked their head in to tell Yue supper was laid out. Thanking the band, the four of them followed the servant down the winding halls to the same room Sokka had met Arnook for the first time. There was a throne on one end, draped in pelts and scrolls. Arnook himself wasn’t there however, instead sitting in front of the large fireplace Sokka honestly couldn’t remember if he’d seen that first time around. 

He rose to meet them, Sokka remembering to bow alongside Lee and Bonzu as Yue introduced her father again. He didn’t look pissed, which Sokka took to be a good sign that he actually fully wanted this sleepover to take place. Nor did he act in any way passive aggressive like Sokka had seen his own dad do when Katara brought a boy home. 

For a while talk was limited to Yue. How her day had gone. Whether she’d been behaving for her guards. Also, “Hahn asked after you. He was hoping to speak to you before next week.”

For some reason Yue’s face twisted into a scowl as she asked, “Did he now?” She hummed, “I’ll speak to him.”

After that Sokka quickly found the tables turned on him. By Yue actually. As soon as she finished setting up a meeting with this Hahn guy she helpfully reminded her father that he was in the presence of the first three outsiders the North Pole had seen in almost a decade. “Oh yes, how is your family? I hear your father’s garnered a bit of a reputation amongst the people.”

Sokka fought off a scowl. “They’re good. We’ve got a house, and jobs, so everything’s going as well as it could.” Except mom wasn’t there, it was cold all the time and Sokka was starting to miss being able to get a burger whenever he wanted. “We’re er, really thankful you let us in here by the way. I know you didn’t have to.”

“Nonsense,” Arnook waved off, “You’re Water Tribe. Your Grandmother especially. It would be unheard of to cast out one of our own.”

Then why weren’t they helping the South Sokka wanted to ask. Yue must have known it took since she knocked her foot against him. Sokka heard himself thanking Arnook again, talk turning instead to Bonzu and how well his waterbending studies were going. 

It was an okay dinner. There was certainly more there to eat than there was at home, Sokka easily finding himself stuffed way before Arnook excused himself. He felt like a bowling ball as Yue tugged him back to the room they would be staying in. He looked to be the only one however, Sokka barely seeing Bonzu eat and Lee subtly hand Bonzu what he wasn’t eating. 

“Your dad seems really nice-”

“Who’s Hahn?” Lee asked as soon as Yue shut the door. 

“Hahn?” The fire was already lit, Yue flopping herself most unprincess-like into the seat nearest to it. 

“He’s on the council isn’t he?” Lee said. 

“He is,” Yue answered carefully. “Or he’s going to be. Why?”

“You don’t seem to like him,” Lee said, meaning Sokka wasn’t the only one who’d picked up on that. “You don’t seem to not like a lot of people.” Which sort of came with the job Sokka supposed but Lee was right. Yue didn’t seem to not like a lot of people. Even these two, who she was suspicious of, she didn’t not like them. In fact she’d seemed to warm up a great deal to Bonzu, asking him through dinner questions that he really didn’t have a need to lie about.

“It’s complicated,” she answered. 

Sokka rolled himself onto his front. “Complicated in the way you don’t want to talk about or complicated in a way that it’s just confusing?” Since he’d gladly shut Lee down if he needed to. 

Yue rolled her eyes. “Just annoying. And it’s not like it’s not public news or anything.” She sighed, “We used to be engaged.”

Which- “But you’re like, my age.” Wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, what was the age of consent here? 

A question he should have asked before Yue waved off the whole thing with, “It was years ago. Well, actually, we got engaged years ago. But dad broke it off around last year. Hahn didn’t take it too well. He was… unkind.” A.k.a a big asshole. “It was very public.”

“Did you… want him to break it off?” Since Sokka was reminded, yet again, that things weren’t the same here as they were at home. Women weren’t as equal. Again, scary. Especially since Katara’s arrival date was getting closer and closer. 

Yue fiddled with her sleeves, “Maybe. I don’t know. It’s not really up to me who I end up marrying.”

“Bullshit-”

“You’re still wearing a necklace,” Lee noted.

She was. She’d been wearing it since Sokka had met her. It was a black thing with a white pendant, the swirls inside making up crested waves, the middle one seeming to rise that little bit more above the rest, a slither of it even arching off into a smaller one. “Yeah,” her face twisted, “I think dad just got a better offer. He won’t tell me who though if that’s why you’re asking. I know people have been wondering.”

“I’m not interested in gossip,” Lee said, which made Yue’s shoulders relax that little bit.

Even more so when she changed the subject off her and onto something else. Like maybe having some fun.

Sokka thought, after he’d finished getting bruises on his ass, that Yue might have been a bit sheltered growing up here. She seemed a bit too eager to agree to Bonzu’s idiotic ideas to slide down the ice steps, or sled in the ballroom. She seemed to latch onto any and any suggestion of anything fun, often saying things like “What else do people do at sleepovers?” It was kind of sad. Sokka certainly would have hated being cooped up in here. Especially without any siblings. 

They stayed up long after their bedtime put it that way. Long enough that Sokka actually had to be the buzzkill of the group and say he needed to go to sleep because some people had jobs to get to in the morning. Yue pouted, but eventually she let him go. Still, as he crawled into his bedroll, Sokka found the tiredness that told him to go to bed not even minutes ago, leave him. Maybe it was being in an unfamiliar room. Maybe it was that, for the first time since he got here, he was sleeping without Gran Gran or dad near him. Maybe it was the fact that the longer he stayed in the North Pole the more everything stopped feeling like it was a dream. Whatever it was, lying there, alone, he just felt sad. An overwhelming sadness that threatened to follow him into his dreams. He wanted to be home. He didn’t know why, it wasn’t like tonight had been awful or anything. It had been fun. Way more fun than Sokka had before in this place. But maybe that was the point. Maybe the more he found himself enjoying it here, the more he realised that this was permanent. That his life before, of being annoyed because someone had left him at the train station with no word of warning, was gone. That he was never going to be back there, in his cozy room, and if he was it wouldn’t be the same. 

What a time for that to set in.

The sadness kept him up for hours more. Long enough for Lee to trudge himself in, Bonzu whining far louder than he should for someone trying to be quiet. They were talking about ice fishing. Or, Bonzu was as Lee told him it was too late for any sort of outside activity and “Would you keep your voice down. It’s not just the two of us in here.”

“He’s fast asleep,” Bonzu huffed, “And you’re a party pooper.”

“I am not.”

“‘We have to get to the North Pole Aang.’ ‘Leave that poor elephant koi alone Aang.’ ‘If we have to make one more stop so you can buy souvenirs Aang I swear to every spirit I can name-”

“I do not sound like that,” Lee hissed. “And you’re the one who needed to learn waterbending. You’re the one who said it was important. I-”

“Zuko,” Bonzu laughed, “I’m kidding. I know okay. I know it’s important and I know I get sidetracked. I’m just saying, I can’t practice waterbending every second of the day. And I don’t want to. I know things are bad, but if we don’t find time to do fun things then, well, what’s the point of living? Besides, Yue’s nice. And she’s a princess. If it were your sister who was asking me to take a few hours out of my day to do fun things I’d probably do it as well.”

Lee, Zuko, Sokka was starting to realise, snorted, “If my sister asks you to take a few hours out of your day for something fun she’s probably going to torture you.” there was rustling, Zuko’s voice sounding closer to the ground this time as he said, “Besides, Yue’s not nice, she’s up to something. The pair of them are. I told you I heard voices when we were practicing.”

“And I told you we were doing nothing wrong. We’re being careful.”

“We need to be more careful.” There was a sigh, “They might not kill you, but they’ll definitely kill me.”

“I won’t let that happen,” Aang said with the conviction Sokka never thought he’d hear coming from a sixteen year old’s voice. “You know I won’t.”

Zuko sighed, the room becoming quiet once more.

Sokka didn’t sleep. This time for entirely different reasons. He found himself paying for it at work that next day, but maybe the sleep deprivation was worth it to know that Yue’s suspicions were entirely right. False names. They were using false names and for some reason Lee, or Zuko, was worried that if they used their real names he’d be killed for it. Maybe it was a bad name. Or maybe it was a name that was well known. Either way, he was exhausted by the time he stumbled home that evening. Dad tutted about him until he was wrapped up in his bedroll, Bato and him making fun of him for wanting to be babied for a while. Sokka didn’t care. They were still keeping him nice and warm even with their laughter. 

He slept. 

For a long time too. It was probably the first time he didn’t wake through the night. He was still tired when he woke, of course he was he had work to go to, but he was clear headed enough to try and force himself forward. To focus on what mattered. 

Yue was right. But… Zuko and Aang weren’t exactly proven threats right about now. If they were openly hostile or, Sokka didn’t know, there was suspicious activity going on, maybe he would have been more inclined to tell Yue. But his brain kept replaying Zuko’s words. The surety in them that if people knew he’d be killed for it. It spoke of experience. Since Aang hadn’t corrected him either Sokka was even more wary of telling Yue. 

The problem was that Yue wasn’t untrustworthy. She was. She’d kept him a secret from her dad until the guards had spotted him on the bridge with her. That much he knew after a few conversations with her. She knew how to keep a secret, and if he asked her to, she probably would. She was nice like that. But if Zuko and Aang were bad people… But if they weren’t and she thought they were…

“You seem glum,” dad noted. It was Thursday. Sokka had elected to make dinner that night, meaning he was waiting for Gran Gran to come back from the market and teach him how to actually make food. During that time he may or may not have rolled himself in his bedroll and was contemplating whether or not it would be a good idea to try and break into Pakku’s school.

“It’s nothing,” he burrowed that little bit further into his roll. “How was hunting?” He’d just gotten back from testing out the new route. First they tested it, then they cleared it if there were any hazards like old traps, and then they’d go hunting for a day or two. 

“Boring. But you knew that.” Dad sat down next to him, shucking his boots off and wiggling his toes near the fire. “Is this because of Bato?”

Bato? “... should it be?”

“No,” dad answered far too quickly. “Just, well, I know you’ve been asking when he was going to leave so. Forget it.”

Okay. “I don’t mind that he’s here.” if that was what the problem was. “I just thought he wanted to get back to fighting. Won’t the chief be wondering where he is?”

“Yeah,” Dad breathed. “I guess.” and it wasn’t like he was getting an audience with Arnook. It had been months. Arnook wasn’t going to suddenly cave. He clapped Sokka’s shoulder, “Okay, so if it isn’t Bato what is it? Your mom? A girl? A boy?”

“Ew no.” 

“What?” his dad dug around underneath the blanket until Sokka was squirming away from him, “What’s wrong with Water Tribe girls Sokka? Your mom’s technically Water Tribe you know.”

“Stop,” he was too old to be tickled. This was an outrage! “Come on dad.”

He did. Sokka still kept himself hunched over just in case another attack was imminent. “I thought you’d made friends here.”

“I have. It’s not that.” 

“But it is something,” Dad latched onto. “If it’s about your mom,” he said after Sokka refused to give any more information, “I’m sending a bird next week. We have to start actually making plans for Katara. Your Gran’s talking to one of the healing halls to see if we can get her enrolled and Bato’s helping to build another bedroom so you and her don’t have to share.”

“And mom?” It wasn’t about mom why he may or may not be glum but, now the conversation had reared itself he wasn’t going to just not ask. “What about her? Is she coming?” He hadn’t wanted to ask. He’d put off from asking ever since they’d learned about this other world since, well, she hadn’t been happy about Katara going. Like not happy at all. She was talking about studying back home too, meaning mom probably wasn’t going to come over the first time. Meaning mom probably wasn’t planning on coming over until the last minute meaning Sokka wasn’t going to see her at all. He couldn’t pop over for a quick talk at the border either. It took a month to get here and, Sokka was realising. “Wait, is that why Bato’s still here? Is he going to pick Katara up when she comes over?”

“... yeah,” dad said after a moment. “Yeah that’s part of it.” Which was a weird way of putting it. “And your mom. She… she’s going to look after the house while we’re here training Katara. We need to enroll her in University after all. And get her a visa, and, well, I don’t know if you’ve noticed but we don’t exactly have wifi here.” No. They didn’t, and Sokka’s wifi deprived brain sometimes had meltdowns over it. Mainly late at night when thoughts of watching a video or two just consume him so much it physically aches him when he sees that stupid no wifi connection on his laptop. Not even dirty videos, although he was sort of getting sick of the porn he’d downloaded before they’d left. 

He would kill to see a video of a dancing cat.

“You and mom,” Sokka started. “Did you, did you separate because of me and Katara?” He’d always thought they’d just fallen out of love but they still liked each other. If they’d fallen out of love surely there would be more hostility. Sokka had always thought that was just how his parents were but, maybe it wasn’t. Maybe they hadn’t fallen out of love at all. 

Sure enough, Dad’s hand tightened on Sokka’s shoulder. “No,” not a very solid no thought. In fact, “in a way yes, but no. Your mom and I love you both very much and it was in no way any of your faults that we’re not together.”

“But it’s Katara’s fault,” Sokka guessed again. “The bending.”

Dad sighed. “Sort of. There were other things but…” he sighed again, “I think your mom and I always knew we would have to leave each other at some point. When Katara first… I think we just prepared for the worst and. Things aren’t as easy as you always think they are. But she loves you,” dad insisted, kissing the top of his head, “And she misses you because I miss Katara like crazy, and I know,” he kissed Sokka’s head again, “when you left for uni she was asking if everyday if it would be alright to call you.”

“You’re both so clingy.” At least he knew now. It sort of made things make more sense. 

“Is that everything?” 

Sokka shrugged. He didn’t want to talk about the other stuff so, “Unless you can get mom to send a powerbank over I think I’ll be fine.”

“A powerbank. Why didn’t I think of that.”

He finished his letter to mom after supper, asking for a powerbank in case she could actually send one over. Then that next morning, since dad was more eager than ever to have his own ipod working, they rushed over to where the messenger birds were kept. Sokka stoutly ignored the girl on the desk flirting with dad, and found himself hurrying off not long after to where Yue usually sat on a Friday noontime.

Except, when he got to the oasis, Yue wasn’t there. He checked everywhere too, saying hello to the two fish who never swam out of their pool as he did so. She wasn’t there. He waited there a good hour too and still she didn’t show up. Lingering in the heat a few minutes longer he figured she must have something more important to do today. She was a princess, he reminded himself, she had duties and a fiance to correspond with. 

So he waited a few minutes more and he left. He could find something to do with his day. Maybe he could explore the streets a bit more. Or ask someone if he could go for a ride on the canals with them. Or, as he spied a familiar green bandana, maybe he could pester ‘Bonzu’. 

He had to physically stop himself from calling Aang as he waved at “Bonzu!” the kid’s head perking up, his body following like a flash until he was in front of Sokka. “You up to anything good today bud?”

At that, a shifty look came over Aang’s face, “Or er, no, just, what are you doing?”

“Something less suspicious than you that’s for sure. You bunking off or something?” and from the wide eyes he got it seemed Sokka had hit the nail on the head. “Lee’s gonna kill you if he finds out.” Pakku would probably beat the kid up too, but Lee, from the sounds of it, was the one Bonzu shared a room with. 

“Probably,” Aang muttered. “But I mean, I wasn’t doing anything bad. I just wanted to see the new seal pups at the Eastern gate.”

“Well why didn’t you say so.” He was a sucker for baby animals. “Let’s go.” 

The kid lit up, grabbing Sokka’s arm and barging their way through the throngs of people until they were indeed looking at a couple of adorable seal pups. Katara would have died. Hopefully there would be some more when she arrived.

Aang, for all his secrecy, didn’t give Sokka a bad vibe. The entire time they were watching the seal pups he kept his voice low, babbling about inane things that had piqued his interest through the day. Just normal stuff too. It didn’t sound like he was omitting anything out or purposefully glazing over a part. His interest in Sokka seemed genuine enough too for all Zuko’s suspicions about him and Yue being up to something.

“Zu-Lee, _ Lee _ ,” Aang repeated to himself quieter. “Says that my slang’s out of date. Apparently people don’t say ‘keep chillin’ anymore in the North. Which sucks.”

“Tell me about it.” He told someone a joke the other day about a blinds salesman and they didn’t understand it. His humour was wasted in the North.

Which meant the pair of them spent the rest of the afternoon telling each other the different lingo they’d grown up with.

He’d blame that, later, for why he didn’t completely understand why Zuko gave him an odd look when they came to the baths that next Thursday. “I mean, you aren’t a bender so I thought you’d have free time,” Since Yue, this week, had sent a messenger to Sokka’s house to tell him she was unable to hang out with him again. He’d caught a glimpse of her on Monday, and whatever was keeping her busy was not making her happy. Sokka thought, remembering that meeting with Hahn, that she was okay. That her guards were doing their damn jobs and not, he didn’t know, turning a blind eye because some guy on the council wanted to take advantage of the princess. Yeah, maybe it was nothing, but from the way things were ran around here, Sokka couldn’t be too sure that a guy on the council didn’t rank higher than a princess’s safety. Maybe Hahn was bribing the guards too in order to turn a blind eye to- just- he didn’t know. He was worried though, and knew he’d try and speak to Yue tomorrow if he didn’t have some sort of distraction so, “I mean, we can go browsing around the market or something. Just hang out. Whatever you like.” 

Aang nudged Zuko in the back. Sokka knew so because Zuko’s chest just that little bit closer to his own and wow, warm, so warm. Zuko glared behind him before making sure, “You want to go out with me?” and maybe the phrasing of it should have warned Sokka about it. 

But he’d started the conversation with those exact words so, “Yeah. Please.”

Zuko’s cheeks coloured. “I er…”

“Look,” he got it, not everyone had the same off days as him, “If you’re busy, that’s fine. I’ll be at the market bridge at noon if you change your mind though.”

He didn’t get a response.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... yeah, I don't know about this one. I'm not feeling it. But I've written like 20,000 odd words for it, so I'm posting it how it is now. I think I might come back to it. If not, I'm deeply sorry. There's another story I kind of want to write thought, and it's sort of taking over my creative mind enough I can't concentrate on this one. I seriously need to start finishing stories in my drafts before posting them.  
> So, sorry.

**Author's Note:**

> It's not finished yet, and I don't know when it will be but I'll try and post as regularly as I can. Comments and Kudo's welcome.


End file.
